The Molecular Atlas Project

The promise of super-resolution microscopy is a technology to discover new biological mechanisms that occur at smaller length scales then previously observable. However, with higher-resolution, we generally lose the larger spatial context of the image itself. The \textit{Molecular Atlas Project} (MAP) directly asks how these competing interests between super-resolution imaging and broader spatially contextualized information can be reconciled. MAP enables us to acquire, visualize, explore, and annotate proteomic image data representing 7 orders of magnitude in length ranging from molecular (nm) to tissue (cm) scales. This multi-scale understanding is made possible by combining multiplexed DNA-PAINT, a DNA nanotechnology approach to super-resolution imaging, with ``big-data'' strategies for information management and image visualization. With these innovations combined, MAP enables us to explore cell-specific heterogeneity in ductal carcinoma for \textit{every cell }in a cm-sized tissue section, analyze organoid growth for advances in high-throughput tissue-on-a-chip technology, and examine individual synapses for connectome mapping over extremely wide areas. Ultimately, MAP is a fundamentally new way to interact with multiscale biophysical data.