Single-cell RNA sequencing is a powerful technology that can reveal a lot about what happens in a group of cells as they develop. But because the technology destroys a cell, it can only provide snapshots of the cells in a group at one point in time. To really understand how cells develop over time, snapshots aren't good enough: scientists want to fill in the gaps between snapshots and string everything together into a movie.

Here Geoffrey Schiebinger explains how he and colleagues have figured out how to do just that, by tapping a powerful 18th century mathematical method called optimal transport.

Learn more about what Schiebinger and other Broad scientists are doing with optimal transport at https://broad.io/WOTstory.

Paper cited: Schiebinger G, Shu J, Tabaka M, Cleary B, et al. Optimal-transport analysis of single-cell gene expression identifies developmental trajectories in reprogramming. Cell. Online January 31, 2019. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.01.006.

Copyright Broad Institute, 2019. All rights reserved.