The 37 trillion cells of the human body have a remarkable array of specialized functions and must cooperate in time and space to construct a functioning human.

In this webinar, Sarah Teichmann, professor of stem cell medicine at the University of Cambridge and co-founder and co-leader of the International Human Cell Atlas Consortium, discusses how her lab harnesses cutting-edge single-cell and spatial genomics to better understand this cellular diversity — specifically, how distinct microenvironments regulate cell identity.

The lab’s spatial atlas of the adult human heart includes the first comprehensive map of the conduction system, and it harnessed the unique molecular signature of the very rare pacemaker cells to make predictions about potential drug activities. Moving from the single organ to the systems level, Teichmann’s team revealed the context-specific and context-agnostic features of the vasculature across the body.

Finally, the team has taken cell atlases into 3D and 4D with its thymus atlases. Studying thymus development uncovered the rules of T-cell identity, which Teichmann’s team then harnessed in the dish to engineer T cells from thymic organoids. The lab also used advanced spatial and computational methods to map T-cell development to a continuous tissue axis, identifying the key spatial and temporal features of this crucial developmental trajectory.