Cardiac map
Goal:
Understand the patterning of cardiac progenitors. The embryonic heart grows by the progressive addition of progenitor cells that lie on a epithelial layer called the Dorsal pericardial wall (DPW). T-box transcription genes (Tbx1 and Tbx5) are the main regulator of the addition of the cells to the poles.
Gap in the field:
We do not understand the mechanisms by which the cells decide to contribute to each pole of the heart.
To investigate this we have:
Used Unsupervised clustering algorithms to map the cells according to their morphological features.
Used Supervised classification algorithms to predict if a cell will express Tbx5 gene.
Used image classification algorithms to predict if an embryo will be healthy or mutant for a T-box gene.
Github: ClaraGCH/CardiacMap (github.com)