This project will use secure computational resources on Bianca/NAISS SENS to analyse sensitive human biomedical omics data generated from several ongoing studies involving patient-derived tissues, human skeletal muscle samples, and human iPSC-derived organoid models.
One component of the project focuses on human colon tissue analysis. We have developed a spatial technology to study bacteria and fungi together with host RNA directly on tissue sections (Spatial metaTranscriptomics or SmT). This will be applied to colon samples from human patients to investigate host–microbiome interactions, including spatial relationships between microbial signals and host gene expression across distinct tissue regions.
The project also includes analysis of human skeletal muscle omics data from healthy subjects undergoing a period of unloading to simulate aspects of microgravity exposure. In this study, one leg is used as the unloaded condition and the contralateral leg serves as an internal control. Bulk RNA-seq and single-nucleus RNA-seq data from these individuals will be analysed to investigate transcriptional and cellular responses of human skeletal muscle to unloading.
In addition, the project will include omics data from human iPSC-derived neural organoids irradiated with protons at the PARTREC facility. Spatial transcriptomics and single-nucleus RNA sequencing will be used to investigate molecular responses to radiation exposure, with relevance to space biology and radiation-induced cellular stress.
Finally, the project will include spatial transcriptomics analysis of endometriosis patient samples. These analyses aim to characterise the spatial organisation of gene expression programs in endometriotic tissue and to identify molecular and cellular features associated with disease-relevant tissue regions.
Together, these studies require secure storage and computation because the project coded/pseudonymised patient or research participant samples and molecular omics profiles.