王然  (副教授)

Expertise in bioinformatics, developmental biology, single-cell and spatial multi-omics.

My lab focuses on the study of single-cell and spatial multi-omics, especially, using the frontier technologies to understand cell fate decisions. Recent technological advances in single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) and spatial transcriptomics have opened the door to profile tissues in greater depth - both with molecular profiling at the level of single cells and in more spatial detail. However, both single-cell and spatial transcriptomics have technical limitations. Most scRNA-seq technologies require tissue dissociation, resulting inevitably in the loss of spatial information related to tissue architecture and organization. The contemporary spatial technologies have yet to achieve a deep read of the transcriptome of the spatially registered cells, or a comprehensive 3D coverage of tissue architecture, which limit the knowledge gain on the molecular attributes of cell fate choice, lineage trajectory and tissue patterning. To solve these problems, we are now applying mathematical modeling, integrating these datasets and developing single-cell spatial algorithms, trying to build spatial molecular atlases of cells, tissues, and organs. Specifically, 1) combining scRNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics to construct single-cell resolution spatio-temporal molecular roadmaps of early organogenesis and body patterning of the mammalian embryo. 2) Using spatial transcriptomics, single-cell multi-omics technologies, in vivo and in vitro experimental strategies to study the molecular mechanisms of left-right patterning establishment during embryonic development.