Speaker：Qiwei Yu（俞启威）Jinye Wang（王敬业）Jingliang Zhang（张景亮）

Time：10:00 - 13:00

In 1957, Conrad Waddington described that mammalian development is unidirectional, which means that embryonic stem cells develop into more mature differentiated states. Such a process can be described by the Waddington’s landscape, where stem cell differentiation corresponds to a ball rolling from the summit of a mountain to the bottom of a valley. The understanding of this landscape was updated as a series of experiments showed that cell fate is in fact, flexible and reversible. For example, pluripotency can be rejuvenated by reprogramming differentiated somatic cells to generate iPSCs. While much is known about the molecular basis of pluripotency, the mechanisms of differentiation remain unclear. Numerous mathematical models (both deterministic and stochastic) were proposed to capture important aspects of differentiation dynamics, introducing various intermediate states (e.g. progenitors) to map the path of differentiation. Recently, high-throughput single cell sequencing technologies have proved the existence of some intermediate states, elucidated their function and significance, and yielded quantitative data. Those data facilitates the development and fitting of mathematical models, making it possible for theories and experiments to develop hand in hand. In this journal club, we will briefly look into the latest advancements on this front.

Guest information:

1. Maclean, Adam L., H. Tian, and Q. Nie. "Exploring intermediate cell states through the lens of single cells." Current Opinion in Systems Biology 9(2018):32-41.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coisb.2018.02.009

2. Zhang, B. , and P. G. Wolynes . "Stem cell differentiation as a many-body problem." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111.28(2014):10185-10190.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1408561111

2. Brackston, Rowan D., Eszter Lakatos, and Michael PH Stumpf. "Transition state characteristics during cell differentiation." PLoS computational biology 14.9 (2018): e1006405.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006405