Project Grant R35GM165442

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences awarded The Regents Of The University Of Colorado (University of Colorado-Denver) $420,600 on August 26, 2026, under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859) to develop computational frameworks that decode disease mechanisms through representation learning.

The research addresses fragmented understanding of disease by creating interpretable data representations that integrate bulk and single-cell transcriptomic data across tissues, diseases, and technologies. The project pursues two primary directions: resolving cell-to-trait associations by building multimodal representations that automatically infer cell-type proportions and expression across thousands of bulk samples, and inferring missing expression data across multiple tissues and disease progression timepoints where ethical or practical constraints prevent complete tissue sampling. These computational models will enable inference of cell-type-specific changes, reconstruction of disease progression trajectories, and mechanistic insight into disease initiation, evolution, and divergence across individuals.

Performance runs through April 30, 2031, with work performed in Aurora, Colorado. The award is structured as a Project Grant, the assistance type supporting investigator-initiated research under NIGMS' mission to advance fundamental scientific discoveries underlying human health and disease.