Summary of the science
During development, in a process called differentiation, cells become specialised to turn into specific types of cells with specific functions. Differentiation is divided up into multiple stages, with cells at each stage taking on unique properties and functions that can be detected and tested in the lab. Sharad Ramanathan and his colleagues use different methods to find out how cells decide what cell they will turn into. Once they understand the processes and signals involved, they will be able to predict future decisions during development.
About the research
The Ramanathan Lab use a combination of computational and experimental tools to investigate the ways in which cells and organisms make decisions during development and behaviour. By using statistical analysis on single-cell transcriptomics data, they aim to understand the process of early mouse embryonic stem cell differentiation, which will help predict cell fate decisions during development. They identified nine distinct cell states of differentiation, each with a unique response to changes and thus different functional properties.
About the illustration