Deep characterization of infiltrating and parenchymal cells is instrumental to obtain insight into the biology of human autoimmune diseases such as glomerulonephritis. In this project, we have established several techniques to generate and analyze high-dimensional data from the human and mouse kidney, such as single cell RNA-seq in combination with protein and V(D)J pairing measurement, single nuclear RNA-sequencing, spatial transcriptomics and integrated data analysis. In addition, we have set up a data management platform to provide the consortium with access to the generated and analyzed data. This service project has already facilitated and contributed to several key publications from all areas of this Collaborative Research Unit.
In the next funding period, we will pursue the established protocols and implement new state-of-the-art single cell techniques and workflows for the generation of transcriptomic data with spatial resolution from the kidney. These data will be provided to the consortium via the data management center.
In particular, we will (i) manage informed consent of patients with glomerulonephritis and handle the renal biopsy core taken for research purposes to perform cell labeling, FACS-sorting, microfluidics, spatial analysis, and library construction; (ii) manage library sequencing that will be performed at the DFG-funded “Competence Centre for Genome Analysis Kiel”; (iii) manage sequencing data and extend the platform with sharing and analysis functionality; and (iv) support individual project with their integrated data analysis.