CNS comprises remarkable cellular diversity. The most numerous cell types in the CNS are excitatory glutamatergic projection neurons and inhibitory GABAergic projection neurons and interneurons.
The interneuron subclass can be further divided into a wide range of subtypes, depending on their molecular profiles (gene expression), function, location and connectivity.
Single-cell genomics approaches have several advantages in studying complex biological systems such as the CNS. We are using single-cell RNA-sequencing, ATAC-sequencing and computational tools in order to study gene regulatory interactions in developing neurons.
The high resolution single-cell -omics is a tool to map genetic regulatory cascades and to study the variation of regulatory landscapes across cell types.
Variation of regulatory landscape can explain disease susceptibility, population variance, resistance to environmental factors and much more.