Oligodendrocytes (OL) are glial cells that mediate myelination of neurons. During OL precursor cells (OPC) proliferation the interplay between transcription factors and epigenetic modifiers is essential for the acquisition of specific cell fates. The disruption of these states can decrease the ability to repair myelin in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). In our group we are interested in deciphering the oligodendrocyte states using single cells omics, from transcriptomics to epigenomics and more recently combining with spatial single cell omics.
We have recently developed single cell multiome epigenomics technologies and joint genome wide single profiling of histone modifications and RNA.
We are planning now to analyze in single cell level repetitive elements and their association to Multiple sclerosis in oligodendroglia. We will be using specific approaches that include multimapping alignment and long-reads sequencing. As a second step we will integrate it with single cell spatial multiome information.