Uncovering the spatial lipid-gene relationships underlying type 1 diabetes using multimodal imaging
Contact PI: Angela Kruse, PhD, Ohio State University
Start Date: May 1, 2026
NIH HIRN Gateway Investigator Award Recipient
Abstract
We propose to define lipid alterations in the pancreas during type 1 diabetes (T1D) using high-resolution, multimodal imaging. Using human tissue from nondiabetic and T1D donors in the Vanderbilt Pancreas Biorepository, we will apply an integrated imaging pipeline—combining imaging mass spectrometry, liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, Xenium spatial transcriptomics, and multiplexed immunofluorescence—to spatially map lipid species alongside RNA and protein markers. These spatial datasets will be co-registered and analyzed to identify cell-type- and niche-specific lipid changes in T1D. Single-nucleus RNA-seq data from PanKbase will be used to predict cell types and transcriptional niches, enabling integrative mining of lipid signatures. All data will be developed in collaboration with PanKbase and formatted for ingestion into this public resource, directly supporting the type 1 diabetes research community and NIDDK’s strategic goals in molecular tissue atlasing.
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