Characterizing the role of B cells in Response to Immunotherapy with the NanoString GeoMx Platform

Digital spatial profiling (DSP) on the NanoString GeoMx platform enables high plex molecular profiling of clinical tissue samples. This new profiling strategy enables deep insights into the heterogenous nature of gene and protein expression as it is driven by the distribution and colocalization of cells within a tissue. Recently, DSP was featured in 2 back to back Nature publications elucidating the important role of B cells in mediated immune response to immunotherapy in melanoma. These studies, from the laboratories of Dr. Jennifer Wargo at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and Dr. Goran Jonsson at Lund University, leverage DSP as well as other traditional and next generation profiling strategies to deeply characterize the molecular expression patterns and spatial architecture of the key immune populations within tertiary lymphoid structures in the tumor. Dr. Sarah Warren will speak about both of these publications, as well as how the work was enabled by prior DSP profiling of melanoma samples from Dr. Wargo’s lab. This webinar will present an overview of the GeoMx platform as well as demonstrate its application to current clinically impactful questions in immuno-oncology.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the biology around B cells and tertiary lymphoid structures in cancer
2. Understand how spatial high plex profiling was used to characterize immune responses within melanoma