Yael Baran

Abstract scRNA-seq profiles each represent a highly partial sample of mRNA molecules from a unique cell that can never be resampled, and robust analysis must separate the sampling effect from biological variance. We describe a methodology for partitioning scRNA-seq datasets into metacells: disjoint and homogenous groups of profiles that could have been resampled from the same cell. Unlike clustering analysis, our algorithm specializes at obtaining granular as opposed to maximal groups.

The origin and history of the Ashkenazi Jewish population have long been of great interest, and advances in high-throughput genetic analysis have recently provided a new approach for investigating these topics. We and others have argued on the basis of genome-wide data that the Ashkenazi Jewish population derives its ancestry from a combination of sources tracing to both Europe and the Middle East.