Angela Kruse, Vanderbilt University

Angela's project is entitled: 3-D Multimodal Analysis of Eye and Pancreas Blocks Using Light Sheet Microscopy and Imaging Mass Spectrometry. Here is Angela's description of her project:
As technology develops, scientists are able to study thousands of molecules such as proteins or lipids from increasingly small tissue samples. One technology used by HuBMAP scientists is imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) which can be used to create a map showing the location of molecules in thin tissue sections. These maps can help improve our understanding of human biology, but it can be challenging or impossible to relate the information from a small tissue sample to an intact organ. To address this challenge, I will combine IMS with another technology called light sheet microscopy (LSM). LSM can be used to visualize specific proteins in very thick pieces of tissue. Using LSM, I will make a 3-dimensional (3-D) map of several major structures such as veins and islets in thick blocks of pancreas and eye tissue. Next, I will divide these blocks into thin sections and use IMS to map the peptides and lipids in these 2-D samples. Finally, I will combine each data type to reconstruct the pancreas and eye tissue blocks with all the molecular information we can gain through IMS inside the 3-D map made by LSM. This study is expected to help us better understand how molecular data from small samples relates to an intact human organ. Adding this organ-level context can help future scientists use our data most effectively. 

About the researcher: Angela Kruse is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Mass Spectrometry Research Center at Vanderbilt University. She received her B.S. in Genetics and Plant Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and her Ph.D. in Plant Pathology with a focus in Biochemistry from Cornell University. Her current research goal is to better understand the molecular environment of human retinal, lens, and pancreatic tissues using a combination of imaging mass spectrometry, proteomics, biochemistry, and bioinformatics. She hopes to spend her career applying and integrating cutting edge technologies to address important challenges facing our society and planet. When not in the lab, Angela enjoys hiking with her dog Ginger and tending to her overlarge collection of houseplants. She comes from a large family with six older siblings, and is a classical flute and piccolo player.