SUPR
Investigation of epigenetic regulation in skin development
Dnr:

NAISS 2023/22-929

Type:

NAISS Small Compute

Principal Investigator:

Xiaowei Bian

Affiliation:

Karolinska Institutet

Start Date:

2023-09-13

End Date:

2024-10-01

Primary Classification:

30204: Dermatology and Venereal Diseases

Webpage:

Allocation

Abstract

The skin is the body's largest organ, acting as a protective barrier that regulates temperature, prevents dehydration, and safeguards against pathogens and injuries. The human genome comprises 3 billion base pairs, with less than 2% coding for proteins. Formerly, noncoding genome sections were seen as "junk DNA" lacking function. Yet, recent transcriptomic studies reveal that approximately 75% of the eukaryotic genome is actively transcribed, which is largely transcripted to non-coding RNAs. However, the coordinated regulation of these noncoding RNAs at the single-cell genomic level, particularly in the context of skin development and differentiation, remains unreported. In this project, our aim is to combine existing single-cell RNA sequencing and single-cell ATAC sequencing datasets from in vitro skin cell differentiation and skin from young and aged mice for comparison. Multiome sequencing analysis serves as a potent tool to identify key cell types, establish their regulomes, and elucidate spatiotemporal gene regulatory interactions involving transcription factors. In summary, our analysis offers a thorough grasp of how cell fate is acquired in stem cell-derived skin organoids and establishes a framework for controlling cell identities and maturation.