Single-cell Technologies to Study Transcriptional Bursting and Alternative Splicing Regulation

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Rickard Sandberg, Ph.D., professor in molecular genetics, department of cell and molecular biology, Karolinska Institutet

Speaker bio(s)

Single-cell methods are widely used to investigate cell types and their genetic programs. Rickard Sandberg and his team have developed single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) methods that cover entire RNA molecules, which has been instrumental in their studies on transcriptional bursting and alternative splicing regulation.

In his Nicholson Lecture, Dr. Sandberg will discuss how allele-resolved scRNA-seq has enabled transcriptome-wide insights into transcriptional bursting dynamics and genomic regulation. The Sandberg lab is also exploring the detection of individual transcriptional bursts using time-resolved scRNA-seq (4sU labeling) to assess co-bursting of neighboring genes in the genome. Dr. Sandberg is increasingly interested in studying how alternative splicing specifies crucial cellular functions, particularly in the brain. He has developed improved computational strategies to identify significant splicing differences between cells. Analyses of full-coverage scRNA-seq data from specific brain regions have revealed the extent of splicing regulation across cell types and provided insights into the RNA-binding proteins responsible for regulating specific exons. Furthermore, analyses of alternative splicing and electrophysiology in the same neurons has led to the identification of alternative splicing events that can predict intrinsic electrophysiological features. Dr. Sandberg will present potential strategies for scaling up full-length scRNA-seq approaches for atlas-level projects.

Dr. Sandberg received his Ph.D. from Karolinska Institutet in 2004 and later was a postdoc in the lab of Christopher Burge at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2008, he established his own lab at Karolinska Institutet and later the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. He became a full professor at Karolinska Institutet in 2015.

Among several honors, Dr. Sandberg has been named an EMBO Young Investigator and a Vallee Scholar. He has also received a Jahres Prize for young researchers and the Göran Gustaffson Prize. He is a member of EMBO and the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska.

FLS lectures will take place in Caspary Auditorium and virtually via Zoom. We recommend virtual participants log out of VPN prior to logging in to Zoom. Please do not share the link or post on social media. This talk will be recorded for the RU community.

Open to

Tri-Institutional