Multi-Omic and Single-Cell Approaches for Elucidating Cell Biology and Pathobiology of Lung Disease

In this Perspective, we review the major themes from a Basic Science Core session at the American Thoracic Society 2024 International Conference: multi-omic and single-cell approaches for elucidating cellular biology and pathobiology of lung disease, with a focus on novel biology identified in human lungs. Recent advances have enabled researchers to study nucleic acids, proteins, and metabolites at single-cell resolution in the lung. These tools can be integrated with complementary methods to lead to new discoveries about lung function and develop treatments for respiratory diseases. We discuss the role of multicenter consortia in developing lung cell atlases and highlight the role of single-cell methods in identifying new respiratory cell types. We then review advances in several respiratory diseases that demonstrate the use of these tools to study lung development, injury, and repair. Finally, we consider future directions for the field, including efforts to harmonize cell types across studies and to develop more robust analytical pipelines.