Following a series of online editions of the Human Cell Atlas Computational and Experimental Workshop, WACCBIP is pleased to have welcomed workshop trainers; Dr Alex Shalek, Dr Daniella Russo, Sergio Triana and Adam Rubin alongside travelling participants from various African countries to the first In-person edition of the workshop which took place from the 7 - 10th of March, 2023.
The opening ceremony kicked off with Prof. Gordon Awandare, the Centre Director, giving a warm welcome to the trainers from the Human Cell Atlas Project and providing a brief history of the Centre's inception, goals, and achievements. He expressed his excitement about the workshop’s potential in improving research at the Centre, and wished all participants a successful learning experience. Dr Alex Shalek, leader of the HCA team, then gave an overview of the workshop's goals and learning objectives for the week.
Figure 1: Prof. Gordon Awandare, the Centre Director, welcoming trainers from the Human Cell Atlas Project and providing a brief history of the Centre.
Figure 2: Cross section of workshop participants at the opening ceremony.
The participants were divided into two groups, the Computational Group and the Experimental Design Group. Sergio Triana and Adam Rubin led the Computational cohort at the WACCBIP Bioinformatics lab, while Dr Alex Shalek and Dr Daniella Russo led the Experimental Design group in the WACCBIP Cell Biology and Immunology Lab.
On the first day of the workshop, Sergio Triana, a postdoctoral fellow with the Shalek Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the Computational group through the basics of single cell analysis (SCA), including how to obtain single cells and the various methods of achieving it.
Figures 3 & 4: Trainer, Sergio Triana taking participants through the basics of single cell RNA sequencing bioinformatics.
Meanwhile, Dr Alex led the Experimental Design group in a practical session on isolating Single Cells from tissue and blood.
Figures 5 & 6: Alex Shalek taking participants through the isolation of single cell for RNA sequencing.
The second day saw the Computational group sharing their views on RNA Sequencing technology and its potential impact on their research. They also learned about analysing bioinformatics data, data integration, and handling batch effects of experiments on resulting data. The Experimental Design group, on the other hand, reviewed approaches to optimising SMART-Seq 2 and SMART-Seq 3 protocols for single-cell RNA analysis and cell hashing.
Figure 7: Discussion session with computational group on the impact of single cell RNA seq on their work.
Figure 8: Practical sessions with participants on optimizing SMART-Seq protocols.
On the third day, Dr Daniella Russo taught the Experimental Design group how to generate SMART-Seq2 Single Cell RNA-seq libraries, using her previous works as illustrations, and concluding with a summary of the protocol for Single cell RNA-seq. The Computational group, led by Adam Rubin, delved into Single-cell multi-omics, using the R programming language to measure RNA and protein expression levels in individual cells using multi-modal data.
Figures 9 & 10: Dr Daniella Russo taking the Experimental Design group through the generation of SMART-Seq2 Single Cell RNA-seq libraries.
Figure 11: Trainer, Adam Rubin, on Single-cell multi-omics, using the R programming language
As the workshop came to a close, members from both groups were paired into teams, and given projects to work on which would require drawing on experiences from both aspects of the workshop. Teams then presented on various research topics employing single cell RNA sequencing technology .
Figures 12 & 13: Cross section of participants in groups working on various projects.
To round things off during the workshop’s closing ceremony, Prof. Awandare expressed his gratitude to Dr Shalek and the training leaders for a successful workshop, and the WACCBIP staff, for facilitating all the activities outside of the lab sessions. Dr Shalek on behalf of the HCA group expressed his gratitude to Prof. Awandare for his role in collaborating with HCA Africa, the WACCBIP administrative staff for their receptivity and hospitality throughout the week, as well as the participants for all their efforts.
Figure 14: Prof. Grodon and Dr Alex exchange gifts on behalf of WACCBIP and the Human Cell Atlas Group.
This year’s in-person Human Cell Atlas Africa Workshop with 60 attendees and staff, from 13 countries was a resounding success, made possible by the support of Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Science and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Centre looks forward to hosting more of such workshops, providing immersive learning experiences in the near future.
