Zhang Zemin: Single-cell sequencing and bioinformatics, "left arm right arm" to help tumor immunology research

Guide: Things about single-cell sequencing and bioinformaticsin view of the complexity of tumor microenvironment, single-cell sequencing technology has been widely used in the study of tumor-immersed immune cells in recent yearsthe transformation of the business community to academia
Before joining Peking University, Professor Zhang Zemin was a long-term leader of Genentech/Roche, the chief of cancer genomics and bioinformatics, dedicated to the use of high-tech technologies such as machine learning and high-throughput sequencing for the discovery of anti-cancer drug targets and biomarkersHe was a pioneer and leader in many directions in cancer computational biology and cancer genomicschance coincidence, the current Beijing University School of Life Sciences, Biomedical Frontier Innovation Center Professor Xie Xiaoliang visited GeneTek, in his introduction and gracious invitation, Professor Zhang has a more comprehensive understanding of Peking University"It's good to be in a place for a long time and feel like a different way of working and the environment, and Peking University is a very cutting-edge place for scienceAt that time with the idea of trying to join Peking University, only to find that the choice is not wrongZhang Zemin recalls joining Peking University in 2014ProfessorZhang says that after joining Peking University, the relaxed academic environment has given him greater freedom for his research and allowed him to focus more on his research objectives"It's different from the company, it's a good place to integrate resources, and there's more room to explore scientifically," he said"
single-cell sequencing technologysingle-cell sequencing technology since 2009, in 2013 by Nature Methods as the technology of the year, more and more applied in the field of scientific researchSince 2015, the advent of 10X Genomics, Drop-seq, Micro-well, Split-seq and other technologies has completely reduced the cost threshold for single-cell sequencingSince then, single-cell sequencing technology has been widely used in basic research and clinical research it is understood that Zhang Zemin Laboratory is mainly committed to combining bioinformatics technology, the most cutting-edge genomic and transcriptional histomic results are applied to solve the important problems in tumor immunity, such as revealing the tumor occurrence process, tumor microenvironment and tumor response to drugs and other biological phenomena in the system trends and functional factors In recent years, they have also used single-cell sequencing techniques to study the heterogeneity of the microenvironment of tumors, as well as to explore at a more subtle level, including the composition, sources, and interaction mechanisms between cells June and October 2018, Professor Zhang Zemin's team published major research results in Nature Medicine and Nature, respectively They mapped the immunity of t-cell immunity of lung cancer and colorectal cancer at single-cell levels, revealed the subgroup classification, tissue distribution characteristics, intratumor heterogeneity and drug target gene expression of t-cell cells of lung cancer and colorectal cancer, and identified the potential state transition relationship between t-cell groups and subgroups of cross-tissue distribution, which has significant diagnostic and therapeutic significance for lung cancer and colorectal cancer Professor Zhang Zemin further introduced to us their laboratory work, "In fact, part of our work is to continue the direction of the previous cancer genome, by studying some of the changes in cancer-related mechanisms through mutations and expression changes in the cancer genome." The most important thing to do scientific research is to be cutting-edge useful, and has potential conversion value "
single-cell transcription group and tumor microenvironment at present, tumor immunity is a very popular research direction, but how to use current technology to quickly solve some important problems need to be more tried Single-cell sequencing technology is useful for exploring complex microenvironments within tumors At present, the more mature single-cell sequencing technology is mainly genome and transcription sequencing, the amount of information brought about is also large and abundant Better computing allows for deeper data mining to reveal differences in genomic and genomic expression, as well as signaling pathways for gene regulation Professor Zhang Zemin, , said, We use single-cell sequencing technology and biological information methods to clarify the tumor microenvironment, especially tumor immersion immune cells, the precise composition and functional state, to explore the specific properties of various types of cells within the tumor, interrelations, and dynamic changes, so as to find new targets, to develop new ways to overcome tumors future development trend will be to achieve the same cell multi-group observation, that is, in the genome, transcription group, epigenetic group, protein and metabolic groups and other levels to achieve the detection of the same cell single-cell sequencing technology is still a bit expensive, and it's worth thinking about whether it can be made cheaper, easier to operate, and easier to obtain If these problems can be solved, single-cell sequencing technology can be applied more effectively to clinical practice Professor Zhang Zemin said data value needs to be further excavated
with the rapid development of gene sequencing technology, life science research has also entered the era of big data, big platform, big discovery Professor Zhang Zemin, who has been working on bioinformatics research, found that many companies are unable to do in-depth analysis after generating data, which is exactly what clinical research requires How to make data analysis more effective? There are also a number of new bio-information services companies, including Zhang Zemin's own laboratory hatched Baio Zhihui These companies, combined with new developments in the field, allow most people to quickly master data analysis and dig deeper and more accurately into existing genomes or single-cell data "Our laboratory applies bioinformatics to big data in cancer histology to reveal the subtypes of cancer, driving genes, and other genetic basis that causes functional events, such as gene fusion, allele differential expression, transcription isomers of tumor isosomes, and so on," further Professor Zhang Zemin At the same time, we develop original bioinformatics tools for the analysis, integration and visualization of single-cell histological data and large-scale cancer histological data, enabling the data to serve the scientific community more effectively innovative, professor Zhang Zemin repeated in the interview He believes that there is no template for biological information, and that innovation can be affected if you imitate others often today immunotherapy such as PD1/PD-L1 is mostly regulating T cells Everyone is flocking to this field, so it's so competitive that thousands of labs are doing something like that In Professor Zhang Zemin's view, in the next few years, T-cells outside the study may be much richer, including a more comprehensive understanding of the tumor microenvironment "Our laboratory is also moving in this direction, hoping to advance cancer immunotherapy and targeted therapy with research in tumor immunogenomics and transcriptional studies," he said "