How do we harness current technology to have the most impact on modern biology and medicine? This question is as wide as the expertise of our group. We work in an interdisciplinary manner, covering areas from computer science to molecular biology. We like technology 🔧, and we are not afraid to explore the unknown. We are members of UCMR (Umeå centre for microbial research) as well as Icelab (Integrated science lab). We believe the key to success is to collaborate with others, build critical mass, and exploit opportunities.
Current research projects are especially centered around a new type of microfluidic technology: Semi-permeable capsules 🫧. We generate them using an Atrandi Onyx, hosted at the Umeå university µNiSCH single-cell facility. This technology enables us to implement advanced library preparation protocols that are otherwise impossible using previous generation single-cell platforms, e.g., 10X Genomics.
The platform enables several projects including:
- Next generation telomere length-based diagnostics
- Development of new CAR T cells for immunotherapy
- Single-cell analysis of microbes
- Host-pathogen interaction analysis
Along with new types of data, we are also developing new bioinformatics software. These days we are particularly enthusiastic about Rust 🦀, as it enables us to write software that can scale to truly enormous sequencing datasets. By combining the best of C++ and Haskell, it is also remarkably productive. For high-level analysis, we enjoy Bayesian statistics as a good compromise between machine learning and interpretability.
We work closely with many other groups, but especially with DDLS fellow Laura Carroll 🦠.
Group Members:
Iryna Yakovenko (shared)
Jyoti Verma (shared)
Florian Albrecht
Julian Dicken
Matthew Bradley