# UC Irvine AD Translational Center for Disease Model Resources-Spatial Transcriptomics Supplement

> **NIH NIH U54** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE · 2021 · $381,790

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Neurodegenerative disease mechanisms encompassing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are complex and have
remained largely unknown to date despite the identification of risk factors and genetic mutations associated with
the disease. One of the major goals of the UC Irvine MODEL-AD project is to characterize rigorous, reproducible
and translatable animal model studies of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of neurodegenerative
dementia. In this respect, the deep characterization of mouse models of AD using high throughput gene-expression
studies at bulk (RNA-seq) and single-cell resolutions (single-nuclei RNA-seq; snRNA-seq) have the potential to
unravel novel biology and define drivers of the disease, which is of great therapeutic value. However, current bulk
and single-nuclei transcriptomics approaches lack the ability to encode spatial, brain region-specific information,
which are crucial to decipher gene-expression changes in the local environment and address long standing
questions on how expression of neuronal and glial genes changes during progression of AD-related pathology.
The current project represents a major advance in the field by taking a comprehensive approach to data-driven
discovery to identify spatial organization of resident neural cells and how they change during the progression of
AD. Finally, the project will identify shared transcriptomic signatures between human and mouse model systems
in a spatially-resolved manner.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10358060
- **Project number:** 3U54AG054349-04S2
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE
- **Principal Investigator:** FRANK M LAFERLA
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $381,790
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2017-09-15 → 2021-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10358060

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10358060, UC Irvine AD Translational Center for Disease Model Resources-Spatial Transcriptomics Supplement (3U54AG054349-04S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10358060. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*