Using Multiomics To Understand Spatial Heterogeneity in Alzheimer’s Disease

Single-cell -Omics analysis methods are having a transformational impact on research in the life sciences. Specifically, the capacity to assess genomes, transcriptomes, or proteomes of individual cells in place of (or in addition to) measuring the average signals from populations of cells allows researchers to ask and answer questions that have never been accessible until now. We recognize this transformation and propose to push it further, developing the world’s first system capable of capturing transcriptome, proteome, and epigenome sequences from a single, spatially resolved cell, and applying it to unraveling a hot question in neuroscience, the relationship between glial cell behavior and Alzheimer’s disease. In sum, in this work, we will explore and expand the unique selectivity of DISCO to obtain exceptionally high-content catalogs of individual glial cells to ask important questions about glial cell behavior as related to Alzheimer’s disease. Importantly, the DISCO platform is highly versatile and reconfigurable, and is cell-type-agnostic in such way that it can evaluate nearly any biological question of interest.

Faculty Supervisor:

Aaron Wheeler

Student:

Partner:

Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Biotechnology; Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

University of Toronto

Program: