Multi-Omics Data Integration: Key To Thoroughly Understand The Immune System

The rise of new omics platforms has undoubtedly helped to deeply describe the immune system; however, at the same time, some discrepancies have been uncovered when studying the same cells or immune conditions with different technologies (e.g. RNAseq vs. MS, flow cytometry vs. MS, flow cytometry vs. mass cytometry). Future studies are necessary aiming at answering whether these differences could have their origin at the molecular level or whether the integration of big data could be failing. If the reason of these inconsistencies is the former, it will be interesting to gain insights into the meaning of such differences about the functioning of the immune system. But, if it is the latter, new improvements might be developed to advance the bioinformatic analysis. All in all, the aim of this Research Topic is to further understand the immune system by multi-omics integration as well as to deepen in their comparison to shed light on the above mentioned discrepancies.

We welcome Original Research articles, Methods, Reviews, Perspectives and Opinions using -omics technologies to study the human immune system, including (but not limited to) these topics:

• Specific immune cell populations and/or subsets (e.g. T cells, memory B cells, myeloid precursors…) under healthy and/or disease conditions.
• Cell-cell interactions between different immune cells (e.g. innate and adaptive immune cells) and also between immune cells and tissues (e.g. lymph nodes, skin, spleen).
• Cross-talk between immune and cancer cells.
• Immunotherapy.
• Bioinformatics integration methods of multi-omics data for immunity knowledge.
• Identification of specific markers of immune cell populations by different omics.
• Strategies for biological interpretation and visualization of multi-omics data.
• Novel -omic applications in the study of disorders of the immune system.


Prof. Jacques J.M. van Dongen, MD, PhD, is chairman of the EuroFlow consortium and the ESLHO foundation and is one of the inventors on EuroFlow-owned intellectual property. The related patents are licensed to Cytognos (Salamanca, ES) and BD Biosciences (San José, CA), which companies pay royalties to the EuroFlow Consortium. These royalties are exclusively used for continuation of the EuroFlow collaboration and sustainability of the EuroFlow consortium. J.J.M. van Dongen reports an Educational Services Agreement from BD Biosciences and a Scientific Advisory Agreement from Cytognos; all related fees and honoraria are for the Department of Immunology at Leiden University Medical Center.

Keywords: multi-omics, immune system, disease, proteomics, transcriptomics, single-cell, cell-cell interaction, immune tissues (structures), big data

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.