#IDIBELLseminars: Modeling cell-cell communication and its relation to cell fate choice from single cell transcriptomics data

Cells constantly process information incoming from cell-cell communication (CCC), prompting to adjust their behavior. For example, a cell can start to produce ligands or receptors to send new signals to its neighbors. High throughput single cell data enable us to investigate these signaling cascades within individual cells. Yet, understanding how these interactions are processed to inform fate choice, i.e. the future state of the cell during development or disease progression, remains a major open question. In this talk, I will discuss our recent computational approaches that leverage single cell transcriptomics data to dissect the connection between cell-cell communication and cell fate decision. These genome-wide models enable us to (1) quantify heterogeneous communication patterns within cell types, (2) connect distinct CCC pathways to different terminal cell states, and (3) identify intracellular regulatory elements that convert ligand-receptor interactions to intracellular response through multilayered regulatory networks.

Hosted by. Jordi Guiu – Cell plasticity and regeneration group

Federico Bocci an assistant professor at the Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Science (RIMLS) in Radboud University, Nijmegen since 2024. Previously, he obtained a PhD in 2019 in José Onuchic’s lab at Rice University, where he developed mathematical models to predict spatio-temporal cell patterning driven by Notch signaling. Later, he was a postdoc in Qing Nie’s lab at University of California, Irvine, where he developed data-driven computation tools to predict cell fate transitions from high throughput single cell data. His group integrates mathematical modeling with single cell (multi)Omics data to uncover the molecular mechanisms underlying cell behavior in development and disease. Current research topics include the role of cell-cell communication and chromatin organization during cell fate specification.