We are a bioinformatics research lab in the Center for Computational Biology and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. We are also affiliated with the Department of Computer Science, the Center for Imaging Science, the Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, and more.
We develop methods for analyzing spatially resolved transcriptomic sequencing and imaging data.
Spatial organization at both the subcellular-level within cells as well as the cellular-level within tissues play important roles in regulating cell identity and function. Recent technological advances have enabled high-throughput spatially resolved transcriptomic profiling at single-molecule and near-single-cell resolution. We develop machine learning and other statistical approaches as open-source computational software to take advantage of this new spatial information in deriving biological insights regarding how spatial organization plays a role in both healthy and diseased settings.
- Brendan F Miller, Feiyang Huang, Lyla Atta, Arpan Sahoo, Jean Fan^. Reference-free cell type deconvolution of pixel-resolution spatially resolved transcriptomics data. Nature Communications. 2022. doi:/10.1038/s41467-022-30033-z
- Lyla Atta, Arpan Sahoo, Jean Fan^. VeloViz: RNA-velocity informed embeddings for visualizing cellular trajectories. Bioinformatics. 2021. /doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btab653
- Lyla Atta, Jean Fan^. Computational challenges and opportunities in spatially resolved transcriptomic data analysis. Nature Communications. 2021. doi:10.1038/s41467-021-25557-9
- Brendan F Miller, Dhananjay Bambah-Mukku, Catherine Dulac, Xiaowei Zhuang, Jean Fan^. Characterizing spatial gene expression heterogeneity in spatially resolved single-cell transcriptomics data with nonuniform cellular densities. Genome Research. 2021. doi:10.1101/gr.271288.120
- Chenglong Xia*, Jean Fan*, George Emanuel*, Junjie Hao, and Xiaowei Zhuang. Spatial transcriptome profiling by MERFISH reveals subcellular RNA compartmentalization and cell cycle-dependent gene expression. PNAS. 2019. doi:10.1073/pnas.1912459116

We apply these methods to better understand the impact of cellular heterogeneity on cancer pathogenesis and prognosis.

Advancements in high-throughput sequencing and imaging technologies have uncovered tremendous genetic, epigenetic, transcriptional, and spatial heterogeneity in various cancers but their impact on clinical outcomes is not well understood. We establish close collaborations with clinical collaborators to develop and apply bioinformatics methods that contribute to a more complete understanding of how cellular heterogeneity impacts tumor progression, therapeutic resistance, and ultimately clinical prognosis. We are particularly interested in pediatric gliomas.
- Jean Fan^, Kamil Slowikowski, Fan Zhang. Single-cell transcriptomics in cancer - computational challenges and opportunities. Nature Experimental and Molecular Medicine. 2020, doi.org:10.1038/s12276-020-0422-0
- Jean Fan*, Hae-Ock Lee*, Soohyun Lee, Da-eun Ryu, Semin Lee, et al. Linking transcriptional and genetic tumor heterogeneity through allele analysis of single-cell RNA-seq. Genome Research. 2018. doi:10.1101/gr.228080.117
- Lili Wang*, Jean Fan*, Joshua M. Francis, George Georghiou, Sarah Hergert, et al. Integrated single-cell genetic and transcriptional analysis suggests novel drivers of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Genome Research. 2017. doi:10.1101/gr.217331.116
Latest Publications
- Gene count normalization in single-cell imaging-based spatially resolved transcriptomics on 05 September 2023
- Advances and prospects for the Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP) on 19 July 2023
- Why it's worth making computational methods easy to use on 27 April 2023
- Alignment of spatial transcriptomics data using diffeomorphic metric mapping on 12 April 2023
- A Universal Method for Crossing Molecular and Atlas Modalities using Simplex-Based Image Varifolds and Quadratic Programming on 29 March 2023
Latest News
- Dr. Fan gives the keynote talk in the Machine Learning algorithms for advancing spatial biology session at the Basel Computational Biology Conference. on 12 September 2023
- We welcome Srujan (Sami) Singh to the lab! Welcome Sami! on 07 September 2023
- We welcome Dee Velazquez to the lab! Welcome Dee! on 28 August 2023
- Lab alumni Mayling starts as an undergraduate student in BME at Hopkins! Welcome (back) to the nest Mayling! on 18 August 2023
- Manju presents and wins a best poster award at the Cerebellum Gordon Research Conference! Congrats Manju! on 07 August 2023
Latest Blog Posts
- Aligning single-cell spatial transcriptomics datasets simulated with non-linear disortions on 20 August 2023
- 10x Visium spatial transcriptomics data analysis with STdeconvolve in R on 29 May 2023
- Impact of normalizing spatial transcriptomics data in dimensionality reduction and clustering versus deconvolution analysis with STdeconvolve on 04 May 2023
- Aligning Spatial Transcriptomics Data With Stalign on 16 April 2023
- 3D animation of the brain in R on 08 November 2022