scEye-Map: Developmental trajectories of progenitor cell populations in the human eye at single cell resolution

我们希望了解人眼是如何在单细胞分辨率下发育的，原因有两个。首先，我们希望使用单个细胞的基因组数据来识别成人眼睛内保持替代受损组织能力的细胞。其次，帮助了解严重出生缺陷影响眼睛的时间和细胞基础，特别是双眼完全缺失和导致出生时失明的类似情况。成人眼睛中有许多不同类型的细胞，每一种细胞都是在早期发育过程中由祖细胞发育而来的。有证据表明，成人眼睛中存在罕见的细胞--被称为祖细胞样细胞--在其他物种中，这种细胞可以被刺激来取代已经死亡的专业细胞。我们可以接触到成人眼睛和人类胚胎眼睛组织。我们的目标是识别胚胎眼中的所有主要细胞类型，并绘制这些细胞群体在发育过程中的进展图，以了解它们在成年眼中的命运。我们将使用一种名为单细胞分析的重要新技术，它允许我们查看种群中每个细胞中哪些基因处于开启状态。基因表达是对细胞进行精确分类的一种非常可靠的工具，它允许我们识别那些不引人注目但在显微镜下可以看到它们的形状或位置的细胞类型。然后，使用先进的数据分析技术，我们可以匹配不同发育阶段的细胞类型，以预测它们的最终命运。这些信息将提供给所有的科学家和临床医生，以帮助他们了解眼睛的发育和疾病。

We wish to understand how the human eye develops at single cell resolution for two related reasons. Firstly we would like to use the single cell 'omic data to identify cells within the adult eye that retain the ability to replace damages tissue . Secondly to help understand the timing and cellular basis of severe birth defects affecting the eyes, particularly complete absence of both eyes and similar conditions which result in blindness from birth. There are many different types of cell in the adult eye and each developed from a progenitor cell during early development. There is evidence for the existence of rare cells - known as progenitor-like cells - in the adult eye, which, in other species, can be stimulated to replace specialist cells that have died. We have access to both adult eyes and human embryonic eye tissue. Our aim is to identify all the major cell types in the embryonic eye and map the progress of these cell populations through development to know what their fate is in the adult eye. We will use an important new technology called single cell analysis which allows us to look at which genes are turned on in each cell in the population. Gene expression is a very reliable tool for the precise categorisation of cells and allows us to identify types of cells that are not noticeable but looking under the microscope at their shape or position. The use of advanced data analysis techniques then allow us to match cell types across development to predict their ultimate fate. The information will be available to all scientists and clinicians to help their understanding of eye development and disease.