Single Cell and Spatial Transcriptomics (WG-SCST)

Membership

It is becoming clear that patient response to therapies, particularly those targeting the immune system such as immune check-point blockade in cancer, is dependent on mobilizing the correct cell type at the correct time. Emerging studies are identifying effector cell types present in patients prior to treatment that can predict a positive response. Routine identification of such cell types, which are often marked by combinations of transcripts or proteins, has the potential to revolutionize precision medicine, particularly in the oncology setting. Single-cell and spatial analysis of gene expression provide a method to simultaneously identify effector and inhibitor cell types within a patient that will provide unprecedented detail to precision matching of therapies. However, these technologies are not yet widely available and continue to evolve with a number of different platforms available, such as single cell analysis, using chromium controller (10x Genomics), and spatial profiling using CODEX (Akoya Biosciences), GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler (Nanostring Technologies), and Visium (10X Genomics). It is anticipated that these platforms will migrate into clinical diagnostic laboratories in the near future. As such this emerging technology is the focus of an active working group within the IFCC Emerging Technology Division (ETD), a division of the IFCC dedicated to providing current awareness for emerging technologies likely to have important clinical diagnostic applications in the near future.

Terms of Reference

Provide a regularly updated perspective on the clinical diagnostic applications of single-cell and spatial transcriptomic technologies as they evolve and become more accessible over the next 3 years through both the creation of a webpage and the publication of manuscripts to:

• Assist clinical laboratories in developing in-house single-cell and spatial transcriptomics
• Provide up to date information on potential therapy matches through identification of effector cell types in different disease states
• Provide up to date information on technologies and approaches as they become commercially available

Current projects

• Begin work on a manuscript delineating the prerequisites required for the implementation of single cell in the clinical setting
• Review the current genomic testing platforms available in the clinic
• Investigation of new platforms for rapid single cell and spatial genomics
• Explore technologies for single cell somatic mutational profiling in tumor, inflammatory, and normal tissues

Working Group Chair

Dr Andrew South

Thomas Jefferson University, 233 S.
10th Street, BLSB 406
Philadelphia USA PA19107
Andrew.south@jefferson.edu