Spatial biology is revolutionizing molecular biology by enabling the examination of cells within their tissue microenvironment. It empowers scientists to reconstruct tissue structures and compartments and investigate intricate cell-to-cell interactions and dependencies. This level of detail is unparalleled by any other available method. The resulting multiplexed images require easy-to-use image analysis tools that are tailored specifically for biologists and pathologists. In this masterclass, we illuminate the significance of spatial biology in modern research, unveiling its potential to revolutionize our understanding of biological processes and disease states. 

We will discuss its capacity to unveil hidden biological nuances and disease mechanisms within tissue landscapes. Emphasizing the practical needs of biologists and pathologists, we will delve into: 

• Image visualization and quality control. 
• Tissue segmentation strategies to delineate anatomical regions and tissue compartments accurately. 
• Cell segmentation, both turn-key and enhanced. 
• Phenotyping for characterizing cellular populations and discerning pathological features. 
• Spatial neighborhood analysis tools, illuminating the spatial relationships vital for understanding microenvironmental influences. 
• The demand for interactive data interrogation platforms, facilitating intuitive exploration of results and hypothesis generation. 

Join us as we navigate the complexities of spatial biology and multiplex image analysis, empowering biologists, and pathologists to decode the mysteries concealed within biological landscapes. By bridging the gap between images and insights, Phenoplex equips researchers with the tools to navigate and understand the complexities of biological systems with precision and clarity. 

Dr Fabian Schneider is part of Visiopharm’s R&D and Product Management team, responsible for phenotyping products as well as service projects for custom APP development. Fabian has over 10 years of international experience in cancer biology and immuno-oncology, working in academic research labs, clinical research teams and computational pathology groups in both academia and biopharma.

Fabian received his Dr phil. nat. in Cell Biology in 2011 from the Johan Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany.

The future of spatial biology promises to reveal the intricate functional interplay between cells, a crucial aspect for understanding disease progression and therapeutic targeting. To decode these cellular conversations, a multiplex multi-omics approach is essential, enabling comprehensive identification and comprehension of diverse analytes. Presently, our capability is limited to combining a few analyte classes on a single slide, such as proteins and mRNA, often at the expense of one class. We can be creative in our assays to go beyond, which reveals the challenge in integrating informatics to not only unify these diverse data types but also to cross-validate and interpret the interactions and their effects on multiple cells in real-time. As cells continually move and interact with different or novel groups, understanding how one cell influences another, and how this influence propagates, is critical. Advancing these techniques will be pivotal in elucidating the dynamic cellular dialogues that underpin disease mechanisms and therapeutic responses.

Jared started his carrier at Texas A&M University learning about patterns in genes and proteins, allowing and facilitating subcellular protein trafficking. As he has progressed to MD Anderson Cancer Center, he has scaled to cellular trafficking attempting to understand the spatial distribution of cells in organ systems during disease. As in many parts of life, form equals functions. How our cells organize speaks to how they function and respond to their local environment. Bringing together multi-omics approaches allows for greater clarity in these imaging snapshots that are collected.