Current Bioinformatics Seminar
Time: 11AM Tuesdays.
Venue: Davis Auditorium and Online
8 April 2025
NAAdvancing Spatial Transcriptomics: Comparative Analysis and Simulation Frameworks
Harrison MuellerWEHI Bioinformatics
Spatially resolved transcriptomics (SRT) offers powerful insights into tissue structure and function, making the kidney - an anatomically well-defined organ - an ideal model. The transcription factor Wnt4 is critical for nephron differentiation, yet its spatial effects are not well understood. In Aim 1, we perform a comparative analysis of wild-type and Wnt4-knockout embryonic kidney samples using Xenium in situ sequencing to investigate lineage-specific effects and spatial organization. Despite the rapid growth of SRT methods, benchmarking remains inconsistent due to the lack of ground-truth data. In Aim 2, we aim to address this by developing a flexible, biologically informed simulation framework for SRT. A review of currently available simulation algorithms will be presented.