Whole-body molecular and cellular mapping of the laboratory mouse
Summary
The laboratory mouse is a key model system for biomedical research, yet body-wide measurement tools are lacking. Here, we generate spatiotranscriptomics profiles of whole-mouse sections that accurately capture histological regions. We spatially assign 379 cell types across whole-mouse section profiles by building a reference dataset of 59M single cells coupled with a scalable computational method for cell-type assignment. Moreover, we exploit these whole-mouse profiles to create a machine
Content
# Whole-body molecular and cellular mapping of the laboratory mouse
*Published: 2026 Mar 27*
The laboratory mouse is a key model system for biomedical research, yet
body-wide measurement tools are lacking. Here, we generate spatiotranscriptomics
profiles of whole-mouse sections that accurately capture histological regions.
We spatially assign 379 cell types across whole-mouse section profiles by
building a reference dataset of 59M single cells coupled with a scalable
computational method for cell-type assignment. Moreover, we exploit these
whole-mouse profiles to create a machine learning pipeline, LABEL, which enables
pan-body annotation of tissues and cell types on histology images from
H&E-stained sections. Lastly, we apply whole-mouse spatial profiling to map
systemic inflammation in endotoxemia, which delineates organism-wide changes in
gene expression programs across tissues and cell types. Together, our work paves
the way for body-wide studies of the molecular and cellular processes that
govern the organismal biology of the laboratory mouse across space, time, and
conditions.
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.03.006