Frontiers in Biomedicine: Pr Bernd Bodenmiller

08.06.2023 12:30 – 13:30

«HIGHLY MULTIPLEXED TISSUE IMAGING TOWARDS PRECISION MEDICINE»

Cancer is a tissue disease. Heterogeneous cancer cells and normal stromal and immune cells form a dynamic ecosystem that evolves to support tumor expansion and ultimately tumor spread. The heterogeneity of this dynamic system is the main obstacle in our attempts to treat and heal the disease. The study of the tumor ecosystem and its cell-to-cell communications is thus essential to enable an understanding of tumor biology, to define new biomarkers to improve patient care, and ultimately to infer for each patient a tailored therapeutic rout.

To study and understand the workings of the tumor ecosystem, highly multiplexed image information of tumor tissues is essential. Such multiplexed images will reveal which cell types are present in a tumor, their functional state, and which cell-cell interactions are present. To enable multiplexed tissue imaging, we developed imaging mass cytometry (IMC). IMC currently allows to visualize over 50 antibodies and DNA probes simultaneously on tissues with subcellular resolution. To exploit multiplexed tissue imaging data for research and translation to patients, we have validated hundreds of antibodies, developed multiple computational toolboxes (histocat, cytomapper, steinbock) and introduced novel concepts to describe tissues (cellular neighborhoods, communities and motives). Application of IMC to large patient cohorts of revealed novel spatial biomarkers of disease progression and whether patients might benefit from immunotherapy. Application in an observational clinical trial showed clear clinical usefulness and already indicates benefit for patients.