Janan Arslan: MAESTRO: Morphology Analysis with Explainable Spatial Transcriptomics for Robust Observation

MAESTRO will be an integrated pipeline for biomarker discovery and gene expression analysis, combining advanced imaging technologies with spatial transcriptomics (ST) and artificial intelligence (AI). The system will be designed to process data from various imaging modalities, such as ultrasound localization microscopy, to identify disease-specific molecular signatures and their spatial relationships and connection with gene expressions. In addition to spatial analysis, the pipeline will also consist of the following elements to assess their influence on disease trajectory and, ultimate, refine our understanding around personalized treatments: (1) shape analyses, (2) visual exploration of gene and biomarker distributions in both 2D and 3D models,  (3) extraction and interpretation of novel features discovered using our own pre-designed explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) methods, and (4) develop disease-specific mathematical models by combining AI-based discoveries with concepts in cell mechanobiology.