Healthy ageing in DNA

In this project the student will use variant calling from single cell sequencing studies to identify the amount and character of mutations in single cells with age. Working with experts in senescence (Gil) and in mutation through development and ageing (Chinnery) the student will explore how mutations accumulate in single cells and whether they might have a phenotypic effect consonant with ageing. Datasets will include those studying single cell senescence, development and ageing and we will draw on both genome sequencing studies and scRNA-Seq data. When candidate sets of genes are identified we will use informatics tools to identify the molecular pathways which are modulated by different kinds of mutation. This builds on pre-existing work in the lab of Nick Jones developing an DNA variant calling pipeline and testing it on the ageing pancreas and eye.