Part 2 of Jill Herschleb on Discovery-Based Research with Single-Cell Genomics

Jill Herschleb, senior director of cell biology at 10x Genomics, talks about her path as a scientist and her work in building the tools that have helped make single-cell genomics the robust and flexible technology it is today.

Here is an informative video on single cell genomics and its use in the effort to make a comprehensive human cell map (aka, the Human Cell Atlas).

In Part 2 of this conversation, we discuss:

*the idea of a cell as a test tube in single-cell genomics, and setting up massively parallel (millions and millions!) experiments [1:58];

*the Human Cell Atlas is a Human Genome Project-type effort, but with throughput that dwarfs that of the 1990s [4:00];

*Single-cell perturb-seq — the evolution of the classic mutant screen [5:25];

*Mechanics of how single-cell analysis works —partitioning via droplets [8:30];

*Implications for drug discovery and development [9:40];

*How do we analyze all these data? [12:35];

*How scientist communities are changing [20:00];

*What Jill’s job at 10x Genomics is like [21:05];

*What trouble-shooting as a scientist at a biotech company looks like [26:00];

*Jill’s advice on how to progress in a scientific career [29:14];

*Connection to a California state high school science learning standard on engineering design [32:08];

*Jill’s memory from high school science — her AP Chemistry teacher conveying both the difficulty and possibility of doing well on the AP exam [36:51];

*Jill’s advice to high school students interested in science — first, science is fun, and remember that! make sure to find the joy in it, in whatever way, when it gets hard, and second, keep your eyes open to all of the various ways you can be a scientist. [40:13]

*Available on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Google, or wherever you typically listen