By Jerry Grillo

When Ahmet Coskun learned that he’d received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, he felt like a minor league baseball player getting the call that he’d made the big show.

“I feel like this is a unique opportunity to play in the big leagues with my visionary mentors,” said Coskun, assistant professor, and Bernie-Marcus Early Career professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. 

The CAREER Awards support early career faculty with the potential to become leaders and role models in research and education. Coskun is being recognized in part for pioneering a new field of research: single cell spatial proteo-metabolomics using generative artificial intelligence. 

It’s a complex mouthful. Basically, it means that Coskun expertise in chemical research and the study of how and where cells are distributed, with graphical structure learning — a technique to study data using various computer tools, including machine learning. His team in the Single Cell Biotechnology and Spatial Omics Laboratory is developing a predictive tool for 3D maps to help clinicians navigate the role of the entire immune system in the presence of disease.

It's the kind of technology that could lead to improved precision therapies for patients, a journey that starts with a single cell. The CAREER Award represents a significant boost for Coskun’s research enterprise.

“My first thought was, ‘finally, my journey to curiosity is getting noticed,’” said Coskun, a Bernie-Marcus Early-Career Professor of BME. “But really, this award reflects the hard work of everyone in my lab. It’s very rewarding to be acknowledged by our peers.”

The CAREER Award is valued at nearly $810,000, over five years (through July 2029). The grant, entitled “Predictive spatial omics by graph and generative learning,” will support the development of open-source computerized models of how molecules and cells organize in biological tissues.

Coskun and his team want to diagram the molecular activity of single cells, to understand how cells decide to react to what we eat, our exercise, or environmental exposures, “reactions that could lead to devastating diseases if molecules are wired in disorder or extend our healthy living if those molecules are wired properly,” he said.

The researchers will use machine learning and other techniques to map and understand hidden features of tissues, using open-source algorithms to predict how cells communicate and vary within tissues. The team also aims to develop methods to generate new types of single cells using integrated models from transcripts, proteins, and metabolites. 

The CAREER Award will also support Coskun’s educational objectives, targeting teachers and students. One program for students in middle school and high school will provide afterschool activities, summer camps, and lab education, integrating home-based and campus learning. The hands-on graphing tools and virtual reality models of tissues will be at the core of such immersive educational outreach programs, synergizing well with Coskun’s research.

“This would not be possible without all the support I’ve received through the years from mentors, my research team, and my family,” Coskun said. “I see this as a great opportunity to be a good role model for the next generation of scientists.”