<p>Human fetal esophageal development is not well understood. We present a spatio-temporal single-cell multi-omics atlas to close such a long-standing knowledge gap. With such an atlas, we describe the cellular heterogeneity and lineage transitions of esophageal epithelium and stroma. We delineate the cellular dynamics of both epithelial and stromal populations during the establishment of esophageal tissue architecture. We identify niche paracrine signals that drive the development of the epithelium. We develop an in silico perturbation deep learning algorithm to further enlighten the in vitro derivation of esophageal basal cells (eBCs) and we use the algorithm to screen for effective and efficient signaling pathway perturbations that could guide in vitro eBC differentiation. We observe that chemically perturbing prioritized pathways yields functional eBCs. Such success sheds light on cell replacement therapy of eBC dysfunction, such as Epidermolysis Bullosa.</p>

Spatiotemporal Charting of Human Esophageal Development for Epidermolysis Bullosa Cell Therapy

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