Federal Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) awarded The Ohio State University a $157,500 Project Grant on May 22, 2026, under the Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.847) to conduct research on spatial lipid-gene relationships underlying Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). The project, which runs through February 28, 2028, will employ an integrated multimodal imaging pipeline combining imaging mass spectrometry, liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, Xenium spatial transcriptomics, and multiplexed immunofluorescence to spatially map lipid species alongside RNA and protein markers in human pancreatic tissue samples from the Vanderbilt Pancreas Biorepository. The research will identify cell-type- and niche-specific lipid changes associated with T1D by co-registering and analyzing spatial datasets in collaboration with PankBase, a public research resource.

The primary deliverable will be a comprehensive spatial dataset integrating lipid signatures with transcriptional and protein information, formatted for ingestion into the PankBase public database to support the Type 1 Diabetes research community and advance NIDDK's strategic goals in molecular tissue atlasing. This research is designed to improve understanding of disease mechanisms and contribute to enhanced prevention and treatment strategies for Type 1 Diabetes through mechanistic insights into pancreatic lipid alterations during disease progression.