Professor Sarah Teichmann, FMedSci FRS
Gene expression genomics
Email: sat1003@cam.ac.uk
Laboratory: Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre
Departmental Affiliation: Medicine
Biography
Sarah did her PhD at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK and was a Beit Memorial Fellow at University College London. She started her group at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in 2001. In 2013, she moved to the Wellcome Genome Campus where her group was joint between the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and in 2016 was appointed Head of the Cellular Genetics programme at the Sanger. In 2024, Sarah took up a Chair in Stem Cell Medicine at the University of Cambridge (Cambridge Stem Cell Institute & Dept Medicine).
Sarah’s laboratory develops and applies cell atlas technologies to decipher human tissue architecture, with a particular focus on how cellular diversity is generated in the immune system and through development. Sarah is co-founder and co-leader of the international Human Cell Atlas consortium which aims to create reference maps for cells across all human tissues and has grown to include over three thousand members across the world. She also co-directs the CIFAR MacMillan Multiscale Human research programme. Her work has been recognised by numerous awards, including the EMBO Gold Medal, Genetics Society Mary Lyons Award, Biochemical Society GlaxoSmithKline Award, the FEBS|EMBO Women in Science Award among others. She is an EMBO Member, ISCB Fellow, and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and Royal Society.
Funding
EU Horizon 2020, European Research Council (ERC), Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), Wellcome Trust, UKRI Medical Research Council (MRC), UKRI Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Aging Biology Foundation (ABF)
Figure from Kanemaru & Cranley et al (2023) demonstrating the combination of single cell/nucleus RNA sequencing, spatial genomics and computational analysis / new tool development utilized in the Teichmann lab; in this case to study the human heart.
Research Summary
Sarah Teichmann is one of the co-founders of the Human Cell Atlas, a global initiative bringing together thousands of scientists to ‘create a comprehensive reference map of the types and properties of all human cells, the fundamental unit of life, as a basis for understanding, diagnosing, monitoring and treating health and disease’ (HCA mission statement). We study the composition of human tissues in both healthy and disease states using single cell and spatial genomics, often using cutting-edge methods. Many of our group members have a deep interest in immunology, including tissue-resident immune cells and cross-tissue studies. We study the healthy human immune system, how it develops during pregnancy, and how it is modified in disease.
Our group is also world-leading in computational analysis and method development. The majority of our staff are ‘dry-lab’ scientists, working on data analysis, new methods and data portals.
Our greatest strength is our people. We come from around the world and a myriad of different disciplines, working together to push scientific research and technology development. From those just starting out to world-leaders in their field, we are always looking for the best and the brightest to join our team.
Teichmann Group photo 2024
Plain English
The Teichmann lab strives to understand how humans are built from our most basic building blocks: our cells. We study how cells are different based on the genes they switch on, their physical location within our organs, how they communicate and how these things influence what they do. Understanding our cells not only allows us to understand how we ‘work’, but how things go wrong in disease and may provide new leads to improve human health. We have a particular interest in the immune system in health and disease. Many of our group are experts in data analysis, building new computational tools to drive our research, and that of the community, forwards. We are a key member of the Human Cell Atlas (HCA) project, of which Sarah Teichmann is co-chair. More information on the HCA can be found here.
Key Publications
- Kanemaru K, Cranley J, Muraro D, …, Teichmann SA. Spatially resolved multiomics of human cardiac niches. Nature. 2023 Jul;619(7971):801-810 PMID: 37438528. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06311-1
- Zhang B, He P, Lawrence JEG, Wang S, Tuck E, …, Bayraktar OA, Marioni JC, Barker RA, Storer MA, Wold BJ, Zhang H, Teichmann SA. A human embryonic limb cell atlas resolved in space and time. Nature. 2023 Dec 6. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06806-x PMID: 38057666 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06806-x
- Kumasaka, N., Rostom, R., Huang, N., Polanski, …, Haniffa, M., Marioni, J. C., Stegle, O., Hagai, T., & Teichmann, S. A. (2023) Mapping interindividual dynamics of innate immune response at single-cell resolution. Nat. Genet. PMID: 37308670. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-023-01421-y
- Worlock, K., Lindeboom, R., Yoshida, M., Dratva, …, Heyderman, R., Noursadeghi, M., Chiu, C., Nikolić, M., & Teichmann, S. (2023) Longitudinal blood and tissue single cell transcriptomics of humans challenged with SARS-CoV-2 reveals innate and adaptive immune dynamics. ERJ Open Res. 2023 9: 97. https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.LSC-2023.97
- Arutyunyan, A., Roberts, K., Troulé, K., Wong, F. C. K., …, Teichmann, S. A., Bayraktar, O. A., Moffett, A., Stegle, O., Turco, M. Y., & Vento-Tormo, R. (2023) Spatial multiomics map of trophoblast development in early pregnancy. Nature. PMID: 36991123. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05869-0
- Domínguez Conde, Xu, C., Jarvis, L. B., Rainbow, D. B., [...], Sims, P. A., Farber, D. L., Saeb-Parsy, K., Jones, J. L., and Teichmann, S. A. (2022) Cross-tissue immune cell analysis reveals tissue-specific features in humans. Science. PMID:35549406. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abl5197
- Aviv Regev, Sarah A Teichmann, Eric S Lander, .., Fiona Watt, Jonathan Weissman, Barbara Wold, Ramnik Xavier, Nir Yosef, Human Cell Atlas Meeting Participants (2017) Science Forum: The Human Cell Atlas eLife 6:e27041. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.27041