NAISS
SUPR
NAISS Projects
SUPR
GPU-Accelerated Spatial Transcriptomic Analysis of Treatment Responses in High-Grade Glioma
Dnr:

NAISS 2026/4-1683

Type:

NAISS Small

Principal Investigator:

Wentao Zhu

Affiliation:

Karolinska Institutet

Start Date:

2026-09-25

End Date:

2027-10-01

Primary Classification:

30203: Cancer and Oncology

Allocation

Abstract

High-grade glioma (HGG) is an aggressive brain tumour with limited therapeutic options. This project investigates how lithium treatment, irradiation, and their combination reshape tumour-cell states and the surrounding brain microenvironment in an experimental mouse model of HGG. We have generated high-resolution 10x Genomics Visium HD spatial transcriptomic datasets together with matched whole-section histological images from tumour-bearing brains across treatment groups and biological replicates. Initial analyses indicate treatment-associated changes in tumour-cell proliferation, interferon-related transcriptional programmes, tumour-associated myeloid populations, and spatially restricted responses within the tumour core and tumour border. The next stage of the project is to systematically determine how these molecular responses are organized within the tissue. We will characterize treatment-associated changes across tumour core, invasive margin, perivascular regions, and surrounding brain tissue, and relate transcriptionally defined tumour and microenvironmental states to local tissue morphology. Particular emphasis will be placed on identifying reproducible biological changes induced by lithium alone and in combination with irradiation. The project requires both large-scale spatial transcriptomic analysis and computational processing of matched high-resolution histology. CPU resources will support processing of large Visium HD expression matrices, transcriptional programme analysis, spatial statistics, differential expression, and biological replicate comparisons. GPU resources will support quantitative analysis of whole-section histology and integration of tissue morphology with spatially resolved molecular states. The overall aim is to obtain a spatially resolved understanding of treatment responses in high-grade glioma and to identify robust candidate mechanisms for subsequent biological validation. Principal Investigator: Wentao Zhu, PhD student, Karolinska Institutet. Main Supervisor: Prof. Klas Blomgren, Karolinska Institutet.