Edith Heard

Collège de France

Epigénétique et mémoire cellulaire

Année 2024-2025

Conférence - Stephen Quake : Understanding the Mysteries of the Cell: How Do Many Cell Types Arise From One Genome?

Stephen Quake

Head of Science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Lee Otterson Professor at Stanford University

Stephen Quake est invité par l'assemblée du Collège de France sur proposition de la Pr Edith Heard.

Résumé

Although the genome is often called the blueprint of an organism, it is perhaps more accurate to describe it as a parts list composed of the various genes that may or may not be used in the different cell types of a multicellular organism. Although nearly every cell in the body has essentially the same genome, each cell type makes different use of that genome and expresses a subset of all possible genes. This has motivated efforts to characterize the molecular composition of various cell types within humans and multiple model organisms, both by transcriptional and proteomic approaches. We used single cell transcriptomics to create a human reference atlas comprising more than one million cells from 24 different tissues and organs, many from the same donor. This atlas enabled molecular characterization of more than 400 cell types, their distribution across tissues, and tissue-specific variation in gene expression, and provides an experimental basis to understand the cell type diversity which can be generated from a single genome.

Stephen Quake

Stephen Quake is Head of Science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, where he oversees CZI's science grant programs, technology development, and the CZ Biohub Network. He has received numerous awards for his contributions to science and is one of only two dozen scientists elected to all three National Academies. Steve also holds a faculty position at Stanford University, where he is the Lee Otterson Professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics. Previously he was the founding co-president of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub (2016-2022), investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2006-2016), and professor at the California Institute of Technology (1996-2005).