Overview
- The study was published in Nature on May 20, 2026 and the team released the full whole-body imaging datasets and code for public use.
- MouseMapper is a foundation-model based AI suite that automatically segments 31 organs and tissue types in whole transparent mice and quantitatively maps nerves and immune cells across the body.
- Applying the tool to mice fed a high-fat diet revealed widespread immune reorganization and loss of trigeminal nerve branches with reduced sensory responses, linking structure to impaired function.
- Spatial proteomics tied the nerve remodeling to specific molecular signatures that the researchers also detected in human trigeminal samples, indicating conserved changes between mice and people with obesity.
- The platform combines tissue clearing, fluorescence labeling and light-sheet microscopy to generate massive 3D cellular datasets that the team says could accelerate multi-organ disease studies and eventually support interoperable cell-level digital models, though broader validation in humans is still needed.