Exploring the Spatial Dimension with MERSCOPE®

SPEAKERS/MODERATOR BIOGRAPHY & TALK TITLE: 

MODERATOR: Anjana Narayanan, Sr. Marketing Manager, APAC, Vizgen Inc. (MODERATOR)

Anjana is an accomplished Marketing professional, currently working at Vizgen. She has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and completed her Postdoctoral fellowship at UTSW Medical Center in Dallas. Anjana has a strong background in cutting-edge genomic technologies having previously worked at 10x Genomics and One BioMed. Additionally, she also worked at the Boston Consulting Group where she specialized in the Healthcare business vertical. With a penchant for traveling and experiencing new cultures, Anjana brings extensive international commercial experience.

SPEAKER 1: Paul Rasmussen, Regional VP, Asia Pacific, Vizgen Inc.

Mapping the Future with Spatial Genomics

Biological systems are composed of numerous cell types, intricately organized to form functional tissues and organs. However, the tissue organization is lost when cells are dissociated for single-cell sequencing, making it difficult to study how cellular heterogeneity is contributing to the function of the tissue.

In this presentation, we will introduce you to Vizgen’s MERSCOPE® Platform for in situ spatial genomics, which enables the direct profiling of the spatial organization of intact tissue with genomic-scale throughput.

Biography:
Paul Rasmussen has over 25 years of experience in the biotech industry, spanning bench science, field applications, technical sales, and leadership. He has deep hands-on and commercial knowledge of the qPCR, microarray, NGS, and spatial biology universe, acquired through two decades at Applied Biosystems, NanoString Technologies, and now Vizgen. Currently based in Singapore, Paul is now responsible for overseeing Vizgen’s commercial buildout in the Asia Pacific region.

SPEAKER 2: Raymond Yip, Senior Research Officer, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), Australia

High Resolution Spatial Omics Analysis of Tissue Microenvironment Using MERSCOPE®

The recent advent of spatial omics platforms has enabled high-plex, spatial profiling of proteins and RNA within tissues. These technologies are particularly relevant in the area of onco-immunology where immune-cancer crosstalk influences disease progression and response to therapy. This presentation will discuss our hands-on experience with the MERSCOPE system, offering practical perspectives on experiment design and data analysis. We will demonstrate the utility of MERSCOPE in the investigation of tissue microenvironment in different pathological settings, including cancer.

Biography:
Dr. Raymond Yip is a Senior Research Officer at WEHI with joint appointment across Imaging, Genomics, and Hawkins laboratories. His research focuses on studying myeloma bone marrow microenvironment using spatial omics technologies. He leads the implementation of Institute’s spatial multi-omics initiative and supervises the operation of Australia’s first MERSCOPE and Xenium. He is heavily involved in technology benchmarking activities and has extensive collaborations with biotechnology companies.

SPEAKER 3: Hongyoon Choi, Associate Professor / CTO, Seoul National University Hospital / Portrai, Inc. South Korea

Understanding the Tumor Microenvironment and Clinical Application through Integrated Spatial Transcriptomics and Imaging

Recent advances in spatial biology provide multi-omic data with spatial information, prompting new evaluation methods for clinical applications like biomarker and drug development. Spatial transcriptomics is an ex vivo multiplexed molecular imaging technique for mapping gene expression in tissues, aiding in understanding the tumor microenvironment (TME). This technique integrates with molecular imaging methods containing spatially matched data. Techniques like SPADE can be combined with various images to identify gene expression profiles that explain TME morphological patterns. A challenge lies in understanding the spatial relationships between TME molecules through topological modeling. Deep learning is a key method for integrating spatial transcriptomics with imaging, offering opportunities to apply spatial biology clinically. Histologic image-derived TME cell-type scores have been applied to clinically available H&E images to predict therapeutic responses. This talk will explore advances in analytic and integrative methods for spatial transcriptomics, highlighting their potential for TME understanding and precision oncology.

Biography:
Hongyoon Choi is an Associate Professor at Seoul National University Hospital and also the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Portrai, Inc. He obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine and Biopharmaceutical Sciences from Seoul National University. Prior to that, he obtained his M.D. from Seoul National University College of Medicine in 2010. His research primarily revolves around leveraging artificial intelligence in medical imaging and molecular medicine. He also integrates diverse biological and medical data to discover biomarkers and disease targets as a translational study. He combines spatial transcriptomics with AI to initiate new theranostics and to develop novel biomarkers. He has received several accolades for his work, including the Hamchoon academic award, the Innovator Under 35 award from MIT Technology Review Korea, and ‘Ones to Watch’ of SNMMI 2019. His expertise and contributions in the field of nuclear medicine, molecular imaging, and spatial biology fields demonstrate his commitment to advancing medical technologies and improving patient care through innovative approaches.

The meeting is free to attend

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