Tissue Profiling & Imaging Methods

LSP researchers are developing high-plex methods that combine spatial imaging and transcriptomics to advance our understanding of the tumor-immune microenvironment. 

The LSP is pioneering new methods for highly-multiplexed tissue profiling that capture precise spatial molecular information from 2D and 3D human tissue specimens. LSP researchers invented tissue-based cyclic immunofluorescence (CyCIF), which can stain and image over 60 proteins at single-cell resolution in human tissue. CyCIF has revealed insights into tumor biology, immunology, and the role of inflammation in disease

We recently built upon this work with 3D-CyCIF, a method that enables a 3-dimensional view of the sub-cellular arrangement of organelles within cells of the tumor microenvironment. 3D CyCIF has revealed novel biology, showing that 3D tissue architecture impacts cell-type identification and neighborhood analysis. 

We are also working to integrate spatial biology with clinical workflows. We recently developed the Orion method, which can collect rapidly high-plex immunofluorescence and diagnostic-grade H&E images from the same tissue section. We see Orion as a critical step towards bringing precision diagnostics to the clinic. 

To learn more about our methods and view our tissue profiling data, visit the Harvard Tissue Atlas.