The Chemical and Biological Engineering Department is pleased to present a seminar by Oni Basu from the University of Chicago as part of our ChBE Seminar Series.

Oni Basu will present a seminar titled "Our efforts towards creating the Human Cell Atlas: Lessons and future directions."

ABSTRACT: As part of the global Human Cell Atlas consortium, we are performing matched single-cell gene expression and chromatin accessibility assays in three organs: heart, gut and the female reproductive system, using surgical tissues and pinch biopsies. These studies allow us to examine gene expression patterns and their regulatory elements across cell-types, as well as tissue-specific functions and pathways between shared cell-types. We are able to connect our single cell profiling results with different disease loci, genes and risk variants identified by previous genome wide association studies. The analysis framework developed for these projects are used to connect disease genetics to specific organs and their constituent cell-types. We compare our findings from healthy tissues to diseases and patients: in inflammatory bowel disease (in the gut) and ovarian cancer (in the female reproductive system). Additionally, the data and knowledge gained from our single-cell studies on primary tissues provide the benchmark for the next stage: modeling complex, tunable and patient-specific disease features in vitro to help stratify disease phenotypes and tailor treatments.

Anindita Basu, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Section of Genetic Medicine, in the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago. Basu trained in soft condensed matter Physics during her PhD, followed by post-doctoral studies in Applied Physics and Systems Biology. She works at the intersection of genomics, medicine, microfluidics and nano/bio materials to bring new tools to aid in diagnosis, understanding and treatment of disease. Her lab develops and uses different high throughput single-cell genomics and associated techniques to map cell types and functions indifferent organs and organisms, including human heart, gut and female reproductive system in health and disease, development of fish fins and drug resistance in fungal pathogens. Other efforts in her group include developing new microfluidic and genomic tools to perform on-chip microbial -omics, host-pathogen interaction profiling and combining 3D printing, programmed flow and imaging to model thrombosis in dialysis patients.

Bagels and coffee will be provided at 9:30am, and the seminar will start at 9:40am. Please plan to arrive on time to grab a bagel and mingle!

*Please note that there will be no Zoom option for seminars this year.