Description
Available single cell reference biological data of tissues from pediatric healthy individuals within collaborative projects as the Human Cell Atlas are scarce. This type of data is fundamental to determine how tissues develop throughout early stages of life and are projected to adulthood. Thus, it is necessary to generate pediatric specific data from diverse tissues that can be used by the scientific community to understand the development and physiology of infants, children and adolescents. Moreover, once the healthy state is characterized a logical step to follow is to identify changes associated with specific diseases. In this regard, this project aims to generate single cell expression and chromatin availability data derived from muscle, skin and adipose tissues from the same donor (approximately 14 donors/year prospectively) as well as scFLEA-ChIP assays in a subset of samples. Gender balance and a broad range of ages will be taken into account.
This data will allow us to explore the intrinsic diversity (eQTLs) within these three tissues which are relevant to study neuromuscular, skin and adipose diseases. Furthermore, skin fibroblasts are extensively used as surrogate tissue for other diseases involving non-accessible organs as the brain. This data will become the foundation of relevant studies related to gene and pathway regulation. Moreover, this kind of initiative will give a unique opportunity to engage the society with the scientific efforts to understand the natural biogenesis of tissues and how abnormal changes of developmental and physiological homeostasis lead to diseases.