Judith and David Coffey Seminar Series: Prof Alicia Oshlack

Speaker: Prof Alicia Oshlack (Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre) 

Abstract: Single cell RNA sequencing technologies have been available for a decade.
However, new technologies are still being developed and refined to provide deeper and
more accurate insights into single cells.  New technologies such as the chromium
compatible 10X FLEX are designed to help with clinical sample collection and use a probe
based capture design for RNA.  We are using this technology to develop a cell atlas of
the pediatric airways.  Along the way we have been exploring aspects of design and
analysis for this technology.  This includes low level analysis and QC of cells as well
as probe design and gene summarisation.  Other new technologies include using long-read
sequencing to explore full-length isoform in single cells.  We are working on approaches
to simulate and analyse differential transcript usage across single cells.  

About the speaker: Professor Alicia Oshlack has been at the forefront of bioinformatics
research for nearly 20 years.  She is the Head of the Computational Biology Program and
group leader at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.  She is best known for her large body
of work on transcriptional analysis and medical genomics.  In addition, Oshlack is
internationally recognised for her development of bioinformatics methods for a range of
applications including single cell RNA-seq, methylation and genomic analysis.  Oshlack
is involved in many cutting edge collaborative projects utilising high throughput
sequencing to investigate disease and development.  She has published more than 120
papers and has developed more than a twenty software packages.  Oshlack has been
recognised by several awards including the Australian Academy of Science, Gani Medal for
Human Genetics (2011), the Georgina Sweet Award for Women in Quantitative Biomedical
research (2016), Senior Fellow award from the Australian Bioinformatics and
Computational Biology Society (ABACBS, 2023) and was recently elected as a member of the
Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science.  

This event will be held in-person and online.  

Zoom: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/84087321707z Venue: Mackenzie Seminar Room, Level 6,
CPC