The mission of the Trapnell lab is to understand how our genome encodes the program of our development and the role this program plays in disease. We develop and apply genomic tools, especially single-cell sequencing, to a variety of in vitro and animal model systems. Our work spans three broad areas illustrated below.

Our research strategy is to develop new algorithms and measurement technologies that will enable the community to quantitatively model how every gene is regulated in every cell type found in an animal. Lab members draw from computer science, statistics, and molecular cell biology to jointly develop both new assays and algorithms that fully exploit their capabilities. We are using our technologies to understand the genetic control of plasticity in key model systems of development and reprogramming.