Mots-Clés

aging single cell GRN

Description

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are important for muscle regeneration, but the mechanisms behind this are not fully understood. Recently, our group showed that MSCs from subcutaneous adipose tissue (ScAT) migrate to injured muscle to promote regeneration in mice. To further understand this process, we performed scRNA-seq using tagged ScAT in wild-type mice to track MSCs as they move from ScAT to injured muscle and identified the sub-populations involved. Our goal is to force differentiation of ASCs into the phenotype of this sub-population. To this aim, we propose to perform several single cell analyses on our data to infer gene regulatory network (GRN) at play and perform pharmacologial screening in Silico using bioinformatic tools. In addition, we want to study alterations of ASCs with aging (transcriptomics analyses) and use a similar approach to reverse aging-induced alterations. This research will provide invaluable insights into the mechanisms of aging of MSCs, which becomes impaired during aging and leads to muscle atrophy and decreased mobility in older individuals. It will also serve as a foundation for future work on MSCs and their potential use in cell therapy.

R and/or Python, bash

5 to 6 months, flexible starting date