The overall goal of the Pancreas OSP is to address this limitation in current knowledge by developing an ultra- high content mass spectrometry (MS)-based 3-dimensional (3-D) imaging pipeline to characterize the molecular signatures (lipids, metabolites and proteins) of different cell types and extracellular matrix components at high resolution. The imaging data acquired by this unique platform will be aligned and fused with the 3-D structure of the human pancreas obtained by coordinate-based alignment with MRI and histochemical based images. This technological pipeline will be developed and integrated with other molecular interrogation pipelines generated through HuBMAP, to create a comprehensive multidimensional 3-D molecular atlas of the human pancreas.
? Pancreas Organ Specific Project This application proposes the founding of the BIOmolecular Multimodal Imaging Center (BIOMIC) at Vanderbilt University, a Tissue Mapping Center associated with the Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP). The mission of BIOMIC is to build a platform of integrated technologies for imaging and molecular analysis that enables the construction of comprehensive 3-dimensional molecular atlases of human tissues. The goal of the Pancreas Organ Specific Project is to elucidate the integration, interactions, and molecular cross-talk between the different tissue substructures and cellular compartments in normal pancreas.
