Uncovering how tissues rewire in disease using deep learning
Presented by Na Sun, AI Fellow, Whitehead Institute
Moderated by
Richard Young
Member, Whitehead Institute
Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Sun Lab at Whitehead Institute is developing deep learning tools to uncover how tissues reorganize in response to genetic and environmental changes. While spatial transcriptomics has transformed our ability to map gene expression within intact tissues, existing computational methods often overlook subtle spatial patterns associated with specific perturbations. To address this gap, the lab has created a new framework that integrates spatial analysis with contrastive analysis to detect condition-specific changes in tissue architecture. By disentangling meaningful biological signals from background noise, this approach has revealed hidden spatial domains in both synthetic and real datasets, including those from disease and genetically altered tissues. In this webinar, Na Sun will present this method and highlight how it can be used to uncover cellular adaptation and tissue remodeling, offering new insights into disease mechanisms, tissue plasticity, and potential therapeutic targets.
