Establishing a Single-cell Spatial Multiomic Profiling Workflow using the Akoya PhenoCycler-Fusion

了解不同类型的细胞如何在疾病状态下发挥作用并相互沟通，为确定一系列不同疾病的新治疗方案提供了机会。近年来，由于能够以前所未有的深度研究和描绘单个细胞，我们对细胞在疾病中如何变化的认识已经发生了转变。然而，这些方法通常依赖于通过分解或分离相关组织来分离细胞，这意味着组织中单个细胞的空间位置会丢失。因此，细胞的精确位置和它们在组织内的局部邻居的组成常常是未知的。此外，分析单个细胞通常需要新鲜的组织样本，这限制了研究来自几种不易获得新鲜组织的疾病的活检样本的能力。为了解决这些问题，空间生物学这一新领域在过去几年中得到了迅速发展。Akoya PhenoCycler-Fusion仪器和Visiopharm分析软件处于空间生物学技术和分析发展的前沿。PhenoCycler-Fusion使用先进的显微镜技术，使研究人员能够在不分离组织的情况下，研究数百万个单细胞在先前获得和储存的组织切片中表达的数百种蛋白质和基因，这意味着每个细胞的空间位置和邻近区域可以精确地绘制出来。Visiopharm软件使科学家能够以用户友好和可重复的方式分析PhenoCycler-Fusion产生的复杂信息，从而对特定细胞群及其邻近细胞的空间位置和功能如何在健康和患病组织之间发生变化产生新的见解。这笔资金将使我们能够首次在爱丁堡大学安装Akoya PhenoCycler-Fusion仪器和Visiopharm分析软件。我们将花时间建立一个新的空间生物学工作流程，并培训研究人员如何最好地利用这一强大的技术。一旦建立，该大学的一些知名专家将使用该工作流程研究一系列疾病，包括肝脏、大脑、肾脏、皮肤、感染和癌症。我们预计这将为这些疾病的潜在新疗法提供新的见解。我们还期望在该大学建立这种空间生物学方法将为未来研究其他疾病提供令人兴奋的新机会。

Understanding how different cell types function and communicate with each other in disease states provides the opportunity to identify new treatment options for a range of different disorders. Our knowledge of how cells change in diseases has been transformed in recent years by the ability to study and profile individual single cells at previously unparalleled depth. However, these methods usually rely on isolating cells by breaking up or dissociating the tissue in question, meaning that the spatial location of the individual cells within the tissue is lost. Hence, the precise position of cells and the composition of their local neighbourhood within the tissue often remains unknown. Furthermore, profiling single cells often requires fresh tissue samples, limiting the ability to study biopsy samples from several diseases where fresh tissue is not readily available.To address these issues, the new field of spatial biology has rapidly developed over the past few years. The Akoya PhenoCycler-Fusion instrument and Visiopharm analysis software are at the forefront of the technological and analytical developments in spatial biology. The PhenoCycler-Fusion uses advanced microscope technology to allow researchers to study hundreds of proteins and genes expressed by millions of single cells in previously acquired and stored tissue sections without dissociating the tissue, meaning the spatial location and neighbourhood of each cell can be precisely mapped. Visiopharm software allows scientists to analyse the complex information generated by the PhenoCycler-Fusion in a user-friendly and reproducible manner, generating new insights into how the spatial location and functions of specific cell populations and their neighbours might change between healthy and diseased tissue.This funding would enable us to install the Akoya PhenoCycler-Fusion instrument and Visiopharm analysis software at the University of Edinburgh for the first time. We will spend time setting up a new spatial biology workflow and training researchers how to best use this powerful technology. Once established, a number of renowned experts at the University will use this workflow to study a range of diseases including liver, brain, kidney, skin, infections and cancer. We anticipate this will provide novel insights into potential new treatments for these diseases. We also expect that establishing this spatial biology approach at the University will provide exciting new opportunities for research into other diseases in the future.