Comparative Single-cell Genomics in the Ocean

The goal of the course is to provide students with hands-on experience in applying single-cell sequencing technology to examine marine animals with cellular resolution, both at the bench and on computers. Throughout the course, students learn how to collect animals, dissect and dissociate tissues, generate single-cell sequencing libraries, process and analyze their own data, and compare cell types across animals using the computational pipelines. This pipeline is optimized to study organisms without extensive prior knowledge and provides students with a valuable set of tools for future work in this field. This course uses a diverse set of animals in order to study the conservation and divergence of cell types and their gene regulatory programs across the animal kingdom. The course includes lectures on Mondays, and web and dry lab components, which have flexible schedules. Pre-requite: BioE219 (recommended for engineering students) or instructor consent.