Project Area B: Preprogrammed development

In this project, we combine lineage tracing of highly-dedicated dermal macrophages with proficiency in single cell epigenomics. We explore factors driving perinatal development of dermal macrophages diversity with a focus on 1) identification of novel macrophages niches in the dermis; 2) perinatal competition between fetal and bone-marrow-derived cells for immunological niches in the dermis; 3) limits of and cues for dermal Mφ subset plasticity. Single-cell transcriptomics and epigenomics, fate mapping, and high-resolution tissue imaging will be employed.