IDRM Spatial Transcriptomics Platform

不同类型的驻留和浸润性细胞与细胞基质的关系被认为是定义组织的关键成分。分析单个细胞的一种方法是使用允许对每个细胞中的所有基因进行测序的技术，这样我们就可以确定哪些基因可能调节细胞在感兴趣的组织中的行为，无论是在健康期间还是在疾病期间。然而，这涉及到将细胞从组织中分离出来，因此我们丢失了关于细胞之间如何相互作用以及局部环境的重要信息。为此，能够在细胞内分析基因的同时保持它们在组织内的完好无损是一项重大的进步，正如纳米串与GeoMx空间剖面仪在商业上所开创的那样。我们希望在牛津大学发育生物学和再生医学研究所(IDRM)内使用这样的Profiler，并将其提供给位于Old Road医学院的肯尼迪炎症和风湿病研究所(KIR)和生物医学工程研究所(IBME)的同事，以及更广泛的医学和数学、物理和生命科学系的同事。具体地说，我们建议使用GeoMx Space Profiler来提供组织内邻近细胞的分子图谱，并检测组织/器官发育、正常功能和损伤或疾病反应过程中基因或蛋白质表达的变化。

Relationships between different resident and infiltrating cell types with the cellular matrix are recognized as key components that define tissues. One way to profile individual cells is to use technologies that allow all the genes in each cell to be sequenced so we can determine which genes might regulate how the cell behaves in a tissue of interest, either during health or disease. However, this involves separating out cells from the tissue and so we lose important information as to how cells interact with each other and the local environment. To this end, being able to profile genes within cells whilst they remain intact within tissues is a major advance, as has been pioneered commercially by NanoString with the GeoMx Spatial Profiler. We wish to utilise such a profiler within the Institute of Developmental Biology & Regenerative Medicine (IDRM) at the University of Oxford, and also make it available to colleagues in the Kennedy Institute of Inflammation and Rheumatology (KIR) and Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME) on the Old Road Medical Campus and across the wider Medical Sciences and Maths, Physics and Life Sciences Divisions. Specifically, we propose to use the GeoMx Spatial Profiler to provide molecular profiles of neighbouring cells within tissues, and to detect changes in gene or protein expression during tissue/organ development, normal function and in response to injury or disease.