AACR 2023:
Spatial Biology Simplified

See below for a roundup up of Spotlight Theater Presentations and Scientific Posters from AACR 2023 featuring Akoya Biosciences technologies and the amazing scientific stories of our pioneering users. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Spotlight Theater Presentations

A Spatial Atlas of Triple Negative Breast Cancer in Women of African Ancestry

Jasmine Plummer, PhD | St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

(15 min) Jasmine Plummer from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital shares how she and her team have created a spatial atlas using a multiomic (protein + RNA) imaging approach to profile triple negative breast cancer of women with different African Ancestry (US Black and Caribbean Black). Using these data along with clinical information, Dr. Plummer aims to develop a benchmark test to measure and interpret multiomic data at the cellular level to identify this aggressive and early onset disease.

Video

ImmunoPROFILE: A Pan-cancer Tissue Biomarker Test for Immune Profiling at Institutional Scale

James Lindsay, PhD | Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

(10 min) James Lindsay from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute presents at AACR 2023 about a groundbreaking project that demonstrates the successful use of a multiplex tissue biomarker test for pan-cancer immune profiling at institutional scale. The assay, called ImmunoPROFILE, is being used in an ongoing prospective cohort study to explore immune phenotypes and response to immunotherapy across 15+ cancer types (looking at CD8, PD-1, PD-L1, and FOXP3), with more than 2,000 patient cases analyzed to-date. Note: The “Polaris” instrument mentioned in this video is now known as the “PhenoImager HT”.

Video

Scientific Posters

Spatial Genomics and Proteomics Enable Multimodal Analysis of Oral SCC Clonal Heterogeneity and Interactions with Tumor Microenvironment

Inês Sequeira, MSc, AFHEA, PhD | Queen Mary University of London

(3 min) Inês Sequeira from Queen Mary University of London discusses how she and her colleagues are using the PhenoCycler-Fusion platform to elucidate the heterogeneity of oral cancers, with the aim of ultimately helping pave the way for more effective treatments. Her team decided to go beyond traditional single-marker studies and look at 40+ proteins for a more holistic view of tumor biology. Dr. Sequeira further highlights the value of probing for spatial insights (how different cell types are distributed throughout the tumor sample, how those cells communicate and interact, etc.) as that can provide unique functional context to such studies.

Video

Development of a Spatial Metabolic Map of Immunotherapy Sensitive and Resistant Cutaneous Skin Carcinoma

Niyati Jhaveri, PhD | Akoya Biosciences

(2 min) Niyati Javeri discusses how Akoya’s new ready-to-use PhenoCode Discovery Panels – with protein panels available for exploring immune cell composition and distribution in a tissue, immune activation, and more – can offer novel views into tumor biology with relative ease on the PhenoCyler-Fusion platform.

Download the full poster in PDF format for a closer look.

Video

Multiomic Spatial Profiling of the Tumor Immune Microenvironment

HaYeun Ji, PhD | Akoya Biosciences

(4 min) HaYeun Ji and colleagues demonstrated a novel automated end-to-end workflow for multiomic (protein + RNA) tumor immune profiling on the PhenoCyler-Fusion platform – bringing together Akoya’s new ready-to-use PhenoCode Discovery Panels (for protein profiling), ACD’s RNAscope HiPlex assays (for RNA profiling), and Visiopharm’s Phenoplex software (for data analysis and visualization).

Applying this workflow to a head and neck cancer tissue sample, the team identified four distinct patterns of immune cell distribution in different regions of the tumor sample (via protein profiling) and were then able to combine that data with information about the spatial distribution of several chemokines involved in immune regulation (via RNA profiling), resulting in an exciting new view into tumor biology that few cancer researchers have been able to see to-date. Further studies using this novel method may help scientists better elucidate unresolved aspects of tumor biology and varied responses to immunotherapy.

Download the full poster in PDF format for a closer look.