Sarah Teichmann She Says

THIS MONTH A random blood sample cannot provide data that THE AUTHOR FILE shows what the software can do, nor can an in vitro experiment. “The power of this method doesn’t really become clear until you profile an immune response,” Sarah Teichmann she says. Generating that response took time and Team sports and team efforts lead to a new teamwork with researchers who had experience with tool that helps with immune profiling. a Salmonella mouse model. This project brings genomics together with T cells are an immune cell family of dazzling diver- Teichmann’s other passion, understanding protein sity. Each T cell—there are roughly 108 T cells in complexes, and, she says, “I want to keep on working a mouse’s blood- in that direction.” For example, she wants to focus on stream, whereas peo- immune synapses, which includes cell-cell interaction ple have around 1013 between T cells and other cells such as helper T cells. T cells—has a unique In Teichmann’s lab people come from many coun- cell surface receptor tries, and she fosters a welcoming, international (TCR) that can detect atmosphere. She was born in Germany, her father is a specific invader and German, her mother is American and she has been in trigger an immune the UK since deciding to study there as an undergrad- response. This diver- uate. Teichmann obtained her PhD degree in com- sity comes courtesy putational biology at the Medical Research Council of V(D)J recombi- (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology, which is nation: three gene affiliated with the University of Cambridge, and EMBL-EBI Sarah Teichmann segments mix and she was a postdoctoral fellow at University College match to form unique London with Janet Thornton. Teichmann landed her a- and b-chains for each TCR type. first faculty position at MRC and has been at the EBI Studying TCR diversity on a single-cell level with since 2013. high-throughput sequencing is challenging. Short “Sarah is outstanding in many ways,” says Thornton, reads do not readily map to this region. “Essentially who is the director emeri- there is no reference,” says Sarah Teichmann, tus of EMBL-EBI and who “At the end of senior group leader at the European Bioinformatics has a research group at the the day most Institute (EBI), which is where she does her in silico EBI. Teichmann asks clear work. Her wet lab is next door at the Wellcome Trust questions, discusses and things are a Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved. America, Inc. Nature Sanger Institute, where she has just become head of takes advice to assure the 6 team effort.” the cellular genetics program. She also cofounded quality of her work. She © 201 the EBI-Sanger Single Cell Genomics Centre. knows how to bring disparate scientists together to To better understand how T cell genetics shapes T address a problem of mutual interest. “In this way cell function, Teichmann and her group have developed she pushes back the boundaries,” says Thornton. She a computational tool called TraCeR that reconstructs mentors young scientists, including her female col- npg TCR sequences from single-cell transcription data sets. leagues, “encouraging them to be focused, ambitious “It’s telling you about the recombination that’s hap- and go-getting.” Teichmann is generous, always will- pened at the DNA level by analyzing the RNA level,” ing to help and engage with others to work on world- she says. class science, says Thornton. To study which VDJ segments are recombined and Researchers are trained to focus on their own proj- how, the lab needed to perform de novo assembly. To ects, but science cannot really be done alone. “At the aid in this task, the researchers built electronic recom- end of the day most things are a team effort,” says binomes, imaginary stretches of DNA covering as Teichmann. There may be a team captain, but every many combinatorial options as possible. TraCeR uses player counts. Teichmann first embraced the team the recombinomes to find and line up reads from TCR spirit playing handball, basketball and tennis. “Sports transcripts such that assembly becomes possible. The have been really important throughout my life,” she software lets researchers study the TCR in the context says. Becoming a professional athlete did more than of the transcriptome, and it gives them a view of T cells cross her mind. “I think as a teenager I would have busily at work. loved to,” she says. Right now her time is taken up As it turns out, T cell clones can be genetically identi- with work and family, but she hopes to soon spend cal, but their transcriptional identities and their work more time on the courts. roles are diverse, says Teichmann. “Even though they’re Vivien Marx identical twins, they’re doing very different things,” she says. Such knowledge opens the door for much explora- Stubbington, M.J.T. et al. T cell fate and clonality inference from single-cell transcriptomes. Nat. Methods 13, 329–332 tion, she says, for s tudies of autoimmune disease, tumor (2016). immunology and the evolution of the immune system. NATURE METHODS | VOL.13 NO.4 | APRIL 2016 | 279.

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