Cell types

…of how neural circuits and their cellular building blocks give rise to central nervous system (CNS) function. Teams must integrate expertise spanning molecular and cellular through systems neuroscience, with strong collaboration between experimental and computational investigators, to bridge cells, circuits, and behavior in a unified framework that yields mechanistic insight.Applications must explicitly connect three core elements: (1) character

Lead multimodal analysis of mammalian neuromodulatory cell types within the Allen Institute Neural Dynamics accelerator. The project integrates single-cell transcriptomics, reconstructed neuronal morphology, input/output connectivity, and in vitro and in vivo physiology to understand how molecular, structural and functional properties define cell types. The scientist will develop quantitative frameworks, analyze morphology, integrate datasets using statistical and machine-learning methods, and collaborate with experimental and computational teams. Outputs include openly shared datasets, scient

…has been used to identify all 200+ cell types that are intrinsic to the Drosophila optic lobe. About half of these cell types were previously unknown, and less than 20% have ever been recorded by a physiologist. I will argue that plausible functions for many cell types can be guessed by interpreting the wiring diagram. VVTNS Fifth Season Closing Lecture. Presented in the van Vreeswijk Theoretical Neuroscience Semi

Stephen Quake explains how different cell types use a shared genome in different ways. Single-cell transcriptional profiling provides a route to mapping this diversity. The lecture describes a human atlas containing over a million cells from 24 tissues and organs, resolving hundreds of cell types and tissue-dependent patterns of gene expression.

The brain has a highly complex structure in terms of cell types and wiring between different regions. What is it for, if anything? I'll start this talk by asking what might an answer to this question even look like given that we can't run an alternative universe where our brains are structured differently. (Preview: we can do this with models!) I'll then talk about some of our work in two areas: (1) does the modular structure of the brain contribute to specialisation of function? (2) how do different cell types and architectures contribute to multimodal sensory processing?

The striking diversity of cells in the mammalian brain lies in stark contrast with the uniformity of cells in theoretical models and artificial networks. What computational advantage do these myriad cell types provide? Deciphering their roles first requires organizing cells in the appropriate manner. Typically, cells are organized into a hierarchical clustering of cells into cell types. This approach is based on a rich history of cell typing based on morphology and other accessible correlates. However, the very large-scale datasets enabled by advances in DNA sequencing potentially may reveal a

…less is known about how different cell types in the brain can facilitate this process by providing architectural priors that bias the network towards sparse, selective, and discriminable representations. We studied this by simulating a neuronal network modelled on the dentate gyrus—an area characterised by sparse activity associated with patter

…High throughput single cell RNA-seq has provided a new way to improve the situation. We initially applied this method to mouse retina, showing that its five neuronal classes (photoreceptors, three groups of interneurons, and retinal ganglion cells) can be divided into 130 discrete types. We then applied the method to other species including human, macaque, zebrafish and chick. With the atlases in hand, we are now using them to address questions about how retin

…functional investigations of specific cell types throughout the fly brain. The Reiser lab actively develops and disseminates new met

…We have approached this problem from a cell type and transcriptomics perspective. This reveals a more granular picture, where different cell types and classes have followed independent trajectories of evolutionary cha