Webinar
The Spatial Biology Week™ 2022: explorations in the new frontier
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We recently hosted our second annual edition of The Spatial Biology Week™ here at Lunaphore. In live talks, roundtables, and Q&As with key academic and industry experts, we explored the latest advancements in using spatial data in biology, how researchers are overcoming technical challenges, and how world-class innovators are using spatial biology to advance discovery and development of targeted treatments across a variety of diseases.
In our 3-part blog series, we discuss the most important learnings from The Spatial Biology Week™ 2022. As all speakers shared equally essential information to scientific advancement, the insights are presented in no particular order.
The Biological Big Bang
Spatial biology can be compared to the Cambrian explosion – namely, the Biological Big Bang. Before the Cambrian explosion occurred around 540 million years ago, most organisms were relatively simple, composed of single cells, and only occasionally organized into larger groups. After, there was an explosion of different kinds of complex living things that did not resemble anything that had been seen before, many that we can trace to living organisms today.
Dr. Carlo Bifulco, Member and Director of Translational Molecular Pathology and Molecular Genomics at Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, Providence, gave a presentation on Day 1 in which he likened the dramatic appearance of diverse and complex organisms after the Biological Big Bang to the rapid growth of platforms and technology that we are living through today. This is something completely unprecedented that brings us beyond traditional approaches. Where previous methods gave simple readouts – the presence or absence of a biomarker – spatial biology unveils the distribution and neighborhood of a biomarker and how it interacts with the elements around it. The applications, with immuno-oncology (IO), currently being used in spatial biology create the perfect setting for the technology to thrive; as Dr. Bifulco said; “spatial biology has the potential for making a difference in the future and really is already making a difference in the present.”
