Andrew Adey, PhD, associate professor of molecular and medical genetics at Oregon Health & Science University talks about a new method of tracking cells to create precise cancer treatments.
So, talk to me about this cell tracking technique. Like how does it work?
ADEY: So, this technology, it’s based on really a new wave of technologies in the field of biomedical sciences where we’ve been able to actually profile individual single cells. Prior to this wave of technologies, things have largely been focused on mashing up a bunch of cells from a piece of tissue. And all of these different cell types that make up all the variation within the tissue are effectively washed away. And you’re just kind of getting an aggregate profile. Well, these new technologies allow us to profile individual single cells. And that lets us identify what are the types of cells that are present in the tissue and how are those individual types of cells altered in a way that maybe causes a disease state? With this newest technology, what we’ve been able to do is instead of just isolating these cells from a large piece of tissue, we can actually track where these cells are present within the tissue. So, it gives us a really precise mapping of where these cells are derived from within that piece of tissue, which can give us insights into a lot of disease states where there’s actually a spatial component. So, one of the things that we applied this technology to was in stroke, where there’s a very strong spatial component at the site of the injury and then radiating out from it. And we’re able to actually capture that spatial information radiating out from that site of injury with all of the different cell types that are present and how those are altered in different ways with relation to the injury site and the spatial position.
And then besides stroke I heard that it could also help with cancer as well?
ADEY: Exactly. Yeah, that’s really going to be one of the major applications of this technology. We designed it in a way to be versatile and work on tissues from all sorts of different disease states and different diseases and areas of research. So that allows us to have the versatility to apply it in a lot of ways. And one of the main focuses is going to be in cancer where we’re starting to apply it to that now where it allows us to actually isolate specific regions within a tumor and explore what are the various different cell types within those regions of the tumor, because tumors have a lot of different cells that are doing a lot of different things. And when you’re not able to track where those are from and the specific properties of those individual cells, you really lose a lot of information. So, this allows this extra layer of precision to really target these specific lesions and regions of a tumor and get the profiles of those cells individually and really give us a lot of power to then design targeted therapeutics and decide on a specific treatment schedule and regimen that can target specific populations of cells that were identified using this technology.
Can you talk a little bit about the study?
ADEY: In the study that we recently published, we’re really describing the development of this technology as a new technology, which gives us the capability to do the cell tracking where we can actually spatially track where these cells are from and get their individual molecular profiles. So, yeah. We really were demonstrating the technology largely in the neuroscience space. So, we profiled brain tissue and then also extended that into a stroke model where there were these, you know, ischemic injury events, so a stroke that was localized that we could actually track the spatial positioning of how cells change with respect to that injury.
And for the average person, what can your research mean to them? You know, when it comes to dealing with stroke or cancer, how can they translate your research into something that they can understand?
ADEY: So, there’s really two different areas where I think this is going to have the biggest impact. The first is at the really fundamental level of understanding these diseases. So, this would be in research settings where we can actually understand more precisely what are the molecular changes at the single cell level and the molecular level that are altered in these cells in a disease state. So that could lead to potential, you know, novel targets that could be used to develop drugs to specifically target those specific alterations that occur. So that’s more in the, you know, early-stage research that could then lead to additional developments. The other area is actually in more in the cancer space. We’re actually profiling these patient tumors and tracking the spatial positions and identifying specific subpopulations with the tumor that maybe wouldn’t be identified using other technologies. So, what that allows us to do is say, well, this patient actually has cells of this specific type, this specific molecular profile that are really, potentially, the most aggressive cells within the tumor that might have been missed by other technologies. And therefore, we can tailor the treatment regimen to really specifically target those cells.
And so instead of just kind of not necessarily waiting to see how the cancer would react, you kind of foreshadow, with this technology, what the particular tumor could do or what it could potentially do, and then what treatments could help with that?
ADEY: Exactly. Yeah, we’re really targeting that window where there’s the initial diagnosis and there’s a biopsy that’s taken. And this is in large part a collaboration with a number of other groups at OHSU and a part of a big effort. And one of the technologies that will be deployed is ours, where we’re actually going to track at that initial diagnosis biopsy to really profile these tumors with this really high level of precision that can then immediately influence the treatment regimen.
And what are the next steps?
ADEY: So the next steps for the technology is really starting to apply it to a broader set of samples and really following up on what I was just speaking on, where, you know, doing the basic science research, really understanding the disease, molecular properties of these diseases, and then also expanding it to additional patient samples to really identify these specific tumor populations and cancer cells that are present within a tumor that could be targeted and using it to really have a better characterization and a better sense of what treatments might be the best for individual patients.
Anything that I didn’t ask you that you feel that people should know?
ADEY: Let me think. That mostly covers it. I think one of the things that I think is important is that this technology can really be applied to a wide variety of different diseases and both at the basic science level and potentially, you know, influencing treatment. So, I think one of the real benefits of it is that it is a pretty direct and relatively simple strategy that we took that makes it very versatile and robust and able to be applied to a wide variety of different diseases.
Interview conducted by Ivanhoe Broadcast News.
END OF INTERVIEW
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