Bio Dr. Luo obtained his PhD in Medicine at Aarhus University in 2012, and received postdoctoral trainings at Novo Nordisk A/S (2012-2014), the Roslin Institute (2013) and Harvard Medical School (2015). Since 2015, Yonglun has been leading an independent research group at the Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University (Link: www.dream.au.dk). He is also PI at the BrainStem – Stem Cell Center of Excellence in Neurology, Copenhagen University. Since 2017, Yonglun was appointed as the executive director of the Lars Bolund Institute of Regenerative Medicine in BGI (www.crispratlas.com). Yonglun Luo’s research focuses on systematically combining multi-OMICS and NGS technologies, single cell RNA sequencing, CRISPR gene editing, stem cell engineering and animal biotechnology (somatic cell nuclear transfer) to understand and develop regenerative medicine. One of his well-known research focuses is to genetically tailor the pigs for biomedical research. Advanced by the latest high-throughput and automatic single cell RNA sequencing technology, his group is re-visiting the somatic heterogeneity and functions of endothelial cells in various healthy and diseased conditions.
Abstract The inner layer of blood and lymphatic vessels, also known as the endothelium, is of vital importance, as blood vessels supply every cell in our body with oxygen and nutrients. Not surprising, endothelial cells (ECs) contribute to many prevalent diseases, including conditions characterized excess EC growth (e.g. cancers) and EC dysfunction (e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular diseases). The heterogeneity of ECs has long been aware of and several degrees of EC heterogeneity have been identified, for instance, ECs from different vasculature beds (arterial, microvascular, venous, lymphatic), within and between tissues, and under different diseased conditions. However, the degree of EC heterogeneity at single-cell level and the mechanism by which ECs specify into all these different phenotypes (cell types) remains poorly understood. To systematically characterize and establish the first-in-class atlas of EC heterogeneity in health and disease, we used high-throughput single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technology to generate the first mouse scRNA-seq EC atlas (which includes 11 tissues 78 EC subtypes. In press), the first high-resolution renal EC taxonomy (24 renal EC phenotypes) [2] and the first high-resolution lung cancer EC taxonomy (32 EC phenotypes, with 16 previously unrecognized phenotypes) [2]. These findings highlight the extensive EC phenotypic heterogeneity and discover several novel (metabolic) mechanisms leading the diverse EC phenotypes.
Host: Prof. Dr. phil. nat Robert Rieben, Group leader, Cardiovascular Research Group, Department for BioMedical Research DBMR, University of Bern
