AI atlas reveals hidden whole-body-damage caused by obesity

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1129010

Publish Date: 2026-05-20 13:26:00

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Whole-body 3D reconstruction

Credit: Ali Ertürk Lab | Helmholtz Munich

Researchers at Helmholtz Munich, the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich (LMU) and collaborating institutions have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) framework that maps disease-related changes throughout the entire mouse body at cellular resolution. Using the new platform, called MouseMapper, the researchers uncovered widespread inflammation and previously unrecognized damage to facial sensory nerves caused by obesity. Importantly, they also identified corresponding molecular signatures in human tissue, suggesting that key features of obesity-associated nerve damage are conserved across species. The findings are published today in the journal Nature.

Obesity affects far more than metabolism and fat storage. It alters immune activity, nerve structure, and tissue organization across multiple organ systems, increasing the risk of diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, neuropathy and cancer. Yet despite these systemic effects, researchers have lacked tools capable of studying disease-associated changes across the entire body in intact organisms and at high resolution.

A team led by Prof. Ali Ertürk, Director of the Institute for Biological Intelligence (iBIO) at Helmholtz Munich and Professor at the LMU, has now developed MouseMapper, a suite of foundation-model-based deep-learning algorithms designed to analyze whole-body biological imaging data. The framework automatically segments 31 organs and tissue…

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