Olszewski Lecture: Spatially Resolved Single-Cell Genomics & Cell Atlas of the Brain
The Neuro's Olszewski Lecture, established in 1986, honours Dr. Jerzy Olszewski (1913–1964), a pioneering neuroanatomist and neuropathologist. Invited to The Neuro by Dr. Wilder Penfield in 1948, Olszewski collaborated on the seminal Cytoarchitecture of the Human Brain Stem, advancing the understanding of brainstem structures and cementing his legacy in neuroscience.
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Xiaowei ZhuangÂ
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard University
Abstract: Cell and tissue functions arise from the coordinated activities of thousands of different genes. Understanding these functions requires imaging at the genome scale, which advances knowledge in many areas of biology, from the regulation of gene expression in cells to the development of cell fate and the organization of cell types in complex tissues. A single-cell genome-scale imaging method, multiplexed error-robust fluorescence in situ hybridization (MERFISH), was developed to enable spatially resolved single-cell transcriptomics, epigenomics, 3D-genomics, and functional genomics. This method allows for single-cell gene-expression profiling in intact tissues, facilitating the identification, spatial mapping, and functional investigation of distinct cell types within those tissues. Using this approach, molecularly defined, spatially resolved, and functionally annotated cell atlases of the brain have been created. This lecture will describe the MERFISH technology and its applications, with a particular focus on mapping the molecular, spatial, and functional organizations of distinct cell types in the brain.
