Ultra-high content imaging (UCSI) for spatial biology applications

• Subject Area: Basic Research in Biology and Medicine
• Term: Funded in 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 528237395

Ultra-high content imaging (UCSI) of histological specimens (spatial biology) is a rapidly evolving field allowing the characterization of cells by gene expression patterns at spatial resolution within a specific tissue context. Accordingly, spatial biology provides a valuable addition to single cell nucleic acid derived (DNA and RNA) gene expression data, which lack any information on the spatial, single cell environment. Although, suitable to analyze tissue architecture, conventional immunohistochemistry (IHC) techniques are substan-tially limited by the number of biomarkers detectable on the same specimen, which es-sentially limits the spatial phenotyping of cells. This information, however, is central to decipher how gene expression guides tissue homeostasis requiring cellular diversity. Employing spatial biology technologies, we aim to characterize the tumor/tissue mi-croenvironment including tumor/stroma interactions and immune cell landscape with their spatial relations as well as various aspects of tumor/tissue heterogeneity in human solid cancers and cardiovascular diseases, respectively. Thus, the imple-mentation of spatial biology technologies essentially complements research capabilities for basic as well as clinical biomedical research. It allows for a comprehensive high-content characterization of tissue intricacy in a reproducible manner. This adds a unique and so far non accessible capability to the biomedical research infrastructure in middle Germany and will have a great impact on third party funded research projects and research consortia at the Martin Luther University (MLU) Halle-Wittenberg. The Core Facility Imaging (CFI) of the medical faculty of the MLU is dedicated to providing high-end imaging and next-generation-sequencing (NGS) technology services for biomedical research. The implementation of spatial biology capabilities in the CFI aims to close the gap between NGS-driven gene expression analyses and protein studies by IHC in clinical as well as experimental specimens. At the MLU, spatial biology technologies will be provided by the CFI to support various third party funded projects, and DFG-funded research consortia, namely the RTGs as well as the recently granted RU. Beyond these mainly cancer research centered applications, the implementation of UCSI technologies via the CFI will essentially strengthen the research infrastructure in the Halle-Leipzig area (middle Germany) to support biomedical research at the single cell level.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Hochinformationsgehalt-Bildgebungsanalyse für räumliche, biologische Fragestellungen
• Instrumentation Group: 5042 Mikroskope für Hochdurchsatz und Screening
• Applicant Institution: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
• Leader: Professor Dr. Stefan Hüttelmaier