Data analysis for mass spectrometry imaging : methods and applications

In this dissertation we developed a number of automatic methods for multi-modal data registration, mainly between mass spectrometry imaging, imaging microscopy, and the Allen Brain Atlas. We have shown the importance of these methods for performing large scale preclinical biomarker discovery investigations for neurological disorders. We have also proposed a data-driven approach to stratify patients’ tumor tissues into molecularly distinct tumor subpopulations and automatically identify those tumor subpopulations that drive patient outcome.