Custom annotation of public single-cell data offers opportunities for target identification

KEYWORDS: scRNA-Seq & bulk RNA-seq | Microglia | Therapeutic targets discovery | Public datasets

Challenge

Microglia have many phenotypes in the brain, but there is little consensus in the literature on the transcriptional profile of each phenotype. Our customer was interested in uncovering and characterizing microglia phenotypes for therapeutic target discovery.

Solution

We integrated 6 public single-cell RNA Seq datasets and followed with clustering, marker gene identification and differential gene expression analysis. In this way, we were able to identify transcriptional differences between microglia phenotypes.

Impact

We provided the customer with the identification and characterization of rare phenotypes that were not previously identified, and with the discovery of new potential therapeutic targets.