GeoMx ® Digital Spatial Profiling
GeoMx®
Understanding tissue heterogeneity is fundamental to answering key biological questions in pharmaceutical and biological drug development. Traditionally, this tissue analysis required a choice between low-plex spatial analysis or high-plex bulk analysis.
To understand tissue pathology an understanding of activity both within a cell and between neighboring cells is required.
To help meet these needs, Interpace Pharma Solutions is proud to offer the GeoMx® digital spatial profiling (DSP) platform developed by Nanostring Technologies.
Key Advantages of Digital Spatial Profiling:
- Analyze virtually any target, any region, any sample
- Compartmentalize user-defined regions of interest (ROIs) in spatially directed patterns using multiple fluorescence labeling for profiling more than 100 proteins and 18,000 RNAs
- Widespread applicability in research settings with the flexibility needed for both hypothesis-driven and discovery-driven studies
- Pre-validated high-plex disease- and pathway-focused panels with potential for customization
- Non-destructive workflow allowing selection of multiple ROIs from a single slide and subsequent immunohistochemical staining or other downstream application
- Compatible with RNAscope visualization markers
GeoMx digital spatial profiling is an innovative high-level multiplexing technique that combines imaging and tissue sampling to advance standard and traditionally used immunohistochemistry procedures. GeoMx enables a spatially-resolved and multiplexed characterization of RNA and protein targets within tissue sections of clinical interest.
GeoMx DSP is a flexible and robust spatial profiling solution which can be used in many areas of research including translational discovery.
The unique combination of high-plex and high-throughput spatial profiling enables rapid quantitative assessment of the biological implications of the heterogeneity within tissue samples and can help aid in biomarker discovery.
GeoMx combines the best of spatial and molecular profiling technologies, including the use of adaptive microscopy for varying tissue geometry. Additionally, digital whole transcriptomes and corresponding profiling data for 100s of validated protein analytes can be generated.
DSP is a nondestructive method for high-plex spatial profiling of proteins and RNA, in FFPE and fresh frozen tissue specimens.
GeoMx uses PC-oligos, which are covalently attached to in-situ affinity reagents (antibodies and RNA-probes) to provide a broad range of multiplexing capability. The photocleaved light is then projected onto the tissue using the two digital DMDs, or Digital Micromirror Devices, which automatically configure themselves to "align" to the biology within the evaluated tissue section.
These spatial light-patterns can be configured to specifically profile:
- "tumor-only" cells and "tumor-microenvironment-only" cells
- unique cell types and rare cell features
- spatial gradients around cell-features or tumor features
- hypothesis-free spatial grids
- simple hand-selected geometric areas
- or any combination of the above modalities.
Regions of Interest
Tunable, light-directed selection enables dynamic profiling modalities
Geometric Profiling - Assess tissue heterogeneity, and profile standardized geometric shapes across distinct tissue regions.
Rare Cell Profiling - Cell type-specific morphology markers guide profiling, revealing the function of distinct cell populations.
Gridded Profiling - Perform deep spatial mapping using a tunable gridding pattern, providing a digital map of the tumor molecular profile.
Segment Profiling - Segment profiling reveals unique tumor and tumor microenvironment molecular profiles.
Contour Profiling - Evaluates how proximity to the tumor or an immune cell population alters biological response.
Do You Need a Flexible Spatial Solution Designed toMeet Your Ever-Changing Research Needs?
Some major advantages of the platform are its high multiplexing ability on FFPE samples, requiring low hands-on time, and the non-destructive procedure that contributes to defining biomarker signatures in discrete ROIs.
Vast Array of Applications for Digital Spatial Profiling:
- Tissue heterogeneity
- Tumor microenvironment
- Autoimmune disease microenvironment
- Biomarker discovery
- Immune cell typing
GeoMx DSP provides tremendous value by simultaneously analyzing multiple analyte types) and a multitude of targets (high-plex).
By incorporating spatial information, novel biomarkers can be uncovered. These predict sensitivity to immunotherapy and can be used in the design of more effective, targeted drugs. There is also significant value in the translational potential of high-plex spatial profiling from a clinical biomarker discovery perspective.
Use In Immuno-Oncology Research
In immuno-oncology (IO), detailed characterization of immune cell subsets within a tumor area can improve understanding of antitumor immunity and resistance to immune checkpoint inhibition. Spatially defined analysis of tumor-immune interactions and assessment of the predictability of treatment response, including cell-cell spatial relationships helps extract specific immune features that influence patient outcomes. These expression profiles provide better characterization and understanding of tumor heterogeneity and the tumor micro-environment, leading to improved patient therapies and the identification of potential biomarker signatures.
GeoMx Workflow
Workflow for High Plex RNA and Protein Profiling
