Quantitative Biology Across Scales
Our aim: To combine innovative imaging techniques and AI in ways that will allow researchers to flexibly image across large and small scales – from seeing whole organs to views of cells and the intricate structures within them – and with these, to transform how doctors treat patients.
“We will develop game changing techniques to map out the biology of our organs. We will begin by studying the placenta to understand what causes it not to function effectively in some circumstances. Our hope is to use computational modelling to understand better how to reduce stillbirth by identifying women most at risk, and improving treatments to reduce babies’ exposure to hypoxia.”
The ambition
The techniques we develop will help answer tricky medical questions, such as how to predict which women are at highest risk of stillbirth. We hope that our computer models will help to understand how drugs would affect the mother-placenta-baby system to influence clinical practice. To future proof our new technologies for use in the clinic, we will work at an early stage with regulatory agencies and the NHS ethics committee.
What are we doing?
We are mapping cells, tissues and organs in the same sample, then using this information to create simulated systems to better understand disease. To do this, we are bringing together imaging techniques, including MRI, synchrotron CT, X-ray, electron microscopy and mass spectrometry, with advanced data science and machine learning.
Why?
A lot of what we know about tissue and organ structure and function is taken from imaging two dimensional, small samples using one technique. Developing ways to bring together many, three-dimensional techniques will allow us to see cells and tissues in greater detail combining information across scales in simulated systems, including where they sit in the wider context of the tissue or organ. This could give us vital information about mechanisms of disease and help the development of new treatments, or improve the use of existing treatments.
Research examples
One of the flagship projects for this challenge is imaging human placenta to better understand how placental health determines outcomes in birth. We are working with a coalition led by the University of Manchester Research Hospital, studying the placenta during and after pregnancy. After birth, we examine the placenta using innovative imaging techniques, such as synchrotron CT at Diamond Light Source, to produce three-dimensional maps of tissue and blood vessels. We will use the data generated to build computer models that simulate how the mother, placenta, and baby interact and may be affected in different situations which could potentially predict pre-eclampsia, fetal growth restriction or stillbirth. We hope our findings will help to understand what abnormalities in the placenta might contribute to harmfully low levels of oxygen for the baby.
In the longer term, the techniques and approaches we develop could also be used in other medical contexts, for example, to help understand endometriosis and the long-term impact of infection on health.
We also hope the techniques will be adopted by the research community more broadly and applied to other health challenges to better understand human health across scales.
The techniques we develop will help answer tricky medical questions, such as how to predict which women are at highest risk of stillbirth. We hope that our computer models will help to understand how drugs would affect the mother-placenta-baby system to influence clinical practice. To future proof our new technologies for use in the clinic, we will work at an early stage with regulatory agencies and the NHS ethics committee.
We also hope the techniques will be adopted by the research community more broadly and applied to other health challenges to better understand human health across scales.
Why the Rosalind Franklin Institute?
This research is pioneering and needs a highly collaborative multidisciplinary approach that includes clinicians, researchers experienced with different leading-edge imaging techniques, and computer scientists working closely together. This is research that would not generally be possible in a university department, as it needs the specialised expertise and equipment based at the Franklin and the neighbouring Diamond Light Source.
