Spatial Molecular Profiling Shared Resource (Cedars-Sinai)

The Spatial Molecular Profiling Shared Resource (SMPSR) Core at Cedars-Sinai provides advanced technologies and expertise to analyze molecular characteristics of biological samples, such as genomics and proteomics. This enables researchers to gain insights into complex biological processes, identify biomarkers, study of complex cellular interactions in the microenvironment, and understand disease mechanisms more comprehensively. The SMPSR offers the Hyperion Imaging System, GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP), and Lunaphore COMET technologies.

Hyperion Imaging System

Imaging Mass Cytometry (IMC) with the Hyperion Imaging System from Standard BioTools allows the researcher to uncover important spatial relationships with high-plex imaging of 40-plus markers simultaneously at subcellular resolution. A precisely directed laser beam focused at 1mm collects biological samples stained with metal-tagged Maxpar® antibodies from a region of interest. Discrete signals from each ionized metal tag are detected with proven CyTOF® technology, based on differences in mass instead of wavelength, thus eliminating autofluorescence and achieves uniform staining with minimal background. Finally, the Hyperion Imaging is the ideal solution when you work with heterogeneous biology where assessing key spatial information is critical to driving a deeper understanding of healthy and disease states.

GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP)

The GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler is a novel platform developed by NanoString. Digital Spatial Profiling is based on nCounter barcoding technology and enables spatially resolved, digital readout of up to 96 proteins or RNA targets in a multiplexed assay. The assay relies upon antibody or RNA probes coupled to photocleavable oligonucleotide tags. After hybridization of probes to slide-mounted formalin fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue sections, the oligonucleotide tags are released from discrete regions of the tissue via UV exposure. Released tags are quantitated in a standard nCounter assay, and counts are mapped back to tissue location, yielding a spatially-resolved digital profile of analyte abundance.

Lunaphore COMET

The COMET™ is the only fully automated, high-throughput, hyper-plex platform that ensures scalability and reproducibility without the need to conjugate primary antibodies. COMET™ provides walk-away automation, integrating staining, imaging, and image preprocessing steps to obtain standard hyper-plex images. Its superior tissue profiling capabilities facilitate the analysis of 60 different spatial markers in each automated run on a single tissue slide. In contrast to other spatial biology solutions, the COMET™ works with off-the-shelf, label-free primary antibodies, making panel design much more flexible and faster than any other hyper-plex solutions. The COMET™ works with regular glass slides from standard histology workflows, is validated for both human and mouse samples, and is compatible with any other animal sample. The platform can be used for a wide range of research applications, allowing for a dramatic improvement in the understanding of disease pathology.

Note: Lunaphore COMET will service in July 2024.

For more information, please visit the Spatial Molecular Profiling Shared Resource site. 

Last updated
February 8, 2024