Mary O'Neill: 'Single-cell genomics is a rapidly evolving field and no one person can stay on top of all new developments.'
By: Mary O'Neill. Ph.D.
The Seattle Area Single Cell user group, otherwise known as SASC, held its first meeting on February 13. If the results of that meeting were any indication of the group’s future, I am quite optimistic.
The next meeting will be May 16, 10 am to 12 noon, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Participants are to gather in the Data Science Lab (DaSL) lounge, Room M1-B406 in the Robert M. Arnold Building at 1100 Fairview Ave N, Seattle, Wash., 98109. Please pre-register for the meeting, so we have a headcount for refreshments here: https://redcap.iths.org/surveys/?s=HD39N9WFLFDCYKRD In addition, people, can add themselves to the mailing list here: https://mailchi.mp/668c21581425/seattle-area-single-cell-sasc
Our first session showed a lot of enthusiasm among the 40 or so participants. Those participants included PIs, post-docs, and graduate students representing all three of BBI’s institutions – UW Medicine, Fred Hutch, and Seattle Children’s. Moreover, we had representatives from the Allen Institute and local science and biotech-related companies.
The common theme was “community” and the need to foster a sense of belonging and unity among Puget Sound area scientists and researchers working in single cell genomics to learn from one another. Single-cell genomics is a rapidly evolving field and no one person can stay on top of all new developments.
The range of those new developments and the diversity of interest were evident at our first meeting. Suggestions of topics for future discussions ranged from ambient RNA correction to multi-modal analysis to data visualization. There was, however, one topic that rose above the others: batch correction
Why are my BBI colleagues and I launching SASC now?
There have been previous efforts by former graduate students at the UW and Hutch, which were short-lived. Once those graduate students moved on to other opportunities, the momentum they created discipated. Since BBI has a single cell genomics platform, we have a permanent structure from which to administer SASC, that is managing the nuts and bolts of our quarterly meetings.
However, managing meetings is quite different from leading them. As a result, I encourage other SASC participants to take the reins in future meetings.
What does “taking the reins” mean? It is simply participants other than myself or members of my team leading presentations on single cell work for the first hour of our two-hour meetings. It was evident from the discussion in February that many participants are conducting exciting projects; their knowledge and insights from those projects likely will benefit others.
See you on May 16th.
[Mary O’Neill is BBI’s Director, Single Cell Genomics]
