SPOTLIGHT ON PROFESSOR SARAH TEICHMANN
Affiliations:
Wellcome Sanger Institute | Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute
and Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge
Research focus: Over the past dozen years, our group has focused on discovering human cells and tissue architecture using cell atlas technologies (single cell & spatial genomics) with data science, with a focus on immunity.
As we move from the Sanger Institute into the Clinical School at the University of Cambridge (Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and Department of Medicine), we are looking forward to expanding these insights into patient studies and model systems such as perfusion rigs and organoids.
Sarah Teichmann
Recent advances from the lab:
- In human adult tissues: The discovery of the molecular fingerprint of pacemaker cells in their niche in the sinoatrial node of the human heart, which revealed new signalling pathways involved in communication with the autonomic nervous system and the supporting fibroblast/macrophage tissue microenvironment (Kanemaru, Cranley et al., Nature 2023).
- In human development: The integration of the developing immune system across lymphoid and non-lymphoid tissues, which revealed innate B cell states maturing in gut tissue, and innate T cell states which we show develop by T-T cross-presentation in vivo and in artificial thymic organoids (Suo, Dann et al., Science, 2022).
Key challenge for the field: Completing the Human Cell Atlas and coupling this with a Multiscale Map of the human body, as per our research programme funded by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. This project also has the long-term vision of developing mechanistic models of the effect of perturbations (disease, environmental) on human cells and tissues based on human in vivo and in vitro data.
Most exciting basic or clinical breakthrough in the past few years: The ongoing community project that is the international Human Cell Atlas consortium.
Published January 2024