Taiji-reprogram
Wang J, Liu C, Chen Y, Wang W
2021 · NAR genomics and bioinformatics
Cellular reprogramming is a promising technology to develop disease models and cell-based therapies.
Abstract
From the original paper, NAR genomics and bioinformatics · PubMed
Cellular reprogramming is a promising technology to develop disease models and cell-based therapies. Identification of the key regulators defining the cell type specificity is pivotal to devising reprogramming cocktails for successful cell conversion but remains a great challenge. Here, we present a systems biology approach called Taiji-reprogram to efficiently uncover transcription factor (TF) combinations for conversion between 154 diverse cell types or tissues. This method integrates the transcriptomic and epigenomic data to construct cell-type specific genetic networks and assess the global importance of TFs in the network. Comparative analysis across cell types revealed TFs that are specifically important in a particular cell type and often tightly associated with cell-type specific functions. A systematic search of TFs with differential importance in the source and target cell types uncovered TF combinations for desired cell conversion. We have shown that Taiji-reprogram outperformed the existing methods to better recover the TFs in the experimentally validated reprogramming cocktails. This work not only provides a comprehensive catalog of TFs defining cell specialization but also suggests TF combinations for direct cell conversion.
Summary
Editorial summary pending review by the maintainer. The paper's own abstract appears above; the Atlas summary in the maintainer's voice will explain how Taiji-reprogram relates to the cross-modality inverse-design framework of the review.
Why this level
Level 1 because the method scores candidate interventions through static regulatory-network influence relative to a target GRN, without computing the post-intervention state . Representation family is regulatory-network influence. Cited in §3.2 of the review. Editorial rationale pending review by the maintainer.