Statistical Bioinformatics Seminar: Dr Joshua Ho (University of Hong Kong)

Speaker: Dr Joshua Ho 

Title: Scalable analysis methods for single cell and spatial omics data and lineage
tracing 

Abstract: Single cell (scRNA-seq) and spatial transcriptomic (ST) analyses are gaining
widespread adoption in many areas of biomedical research.  A large amount of scRNA-seq
and ST data are being generated at a rapid rate.  Nonetheless, it is challenging to
quickly and efficiently process a large collection of these data.  Extending our
team’s pioneering experience in developing scalable bioinformatics tools, we have
developed a suite of cloud-accelerated scRNA-seq analysis tools that efficiently process
read-level information at a highly scalable manner.  In this talk, we will showcase a
number of tools that we have developed to enable large-scale single cell RNA-seq
analysis.  Furthermore, we will discuss new methods that enable somatic genetic variants
in mitochondria to be used as endogenous lineage tracing markers in scRNA-seq and ST
data.  We will showcase the use of this type of novel lineage tracing technology to
study cancer using human clinical tumour samples.  

About the speaker: Joshua Ho is an Associate Professor in the School of Biomedical
Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKU).  He completed his BSc (Hon 1, Medal) and
PhD in Bioinformatics from the University of Sydney, and undertook postdoctoral training
in at Harvard Medical School.  He is an expert in developing scalable computational
methods to analyse single cell omic data, metagenomic data, and digital health data.
Joshua has over 140 publications, including first or senior papers in leading journals
such as Nature, Nature Communications, Genome Biology, Nucleic Acids Research and Cell
Systems.  Joshua is also currently the Programme Co-Director of BSc (Bioinformatics),
Deputy Director of EdTech (AI), Academic Lead of the Bioinformatics Core of the Centre
for PanorOmic Sciences (CPOS) at HKU, and Lead Scientist of Laboratory Data Discovery
for Health.  He co-founded a digital health company Vitome Limited.  

This event will be held in-person and online.  

In-person venue: Access Grid Room, Level 8, Carslaw 

Zoom: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/84087321707