Mapping the rules of glioblastoma with single cell and spatial genomics
In this talk, you will learn how new research on glioblastoma (GBM) aims to replace the prevailing "chaos model" of cancer cell plasticity with a "rule-based model." The focus will be on the creation of the GBM-Space atlas and the discovery of meticulous spatial patterning within tumors, highlighting several key findings:
- The GBM-Space atlas: Discover a comprehensive, multimodal dataset derived from deeply profiling multiple tumor sites across twelve patients. Learn how the analysis of over a million nuclei identified four distinct malignant cell states: two developmental-like (OPC-like, NPC-like) and two related to the glial injury response (astroglial/gliotic, hypoxic).
- Meticulous spatial organization: Explore how spatial omics technologies reveal a highly structured tumor microenvironment. Developmental-like cells consistently localize at the tumor's leading edge, while gliotic and hypoxic states are found closer to the hypoxic and necrotic core.
- Conserved cellular trajectories: Understand how this precise spatial patterning suggests a stereotyped trajectory, where malignant cells transition from developmental-like states into injury response and hypoxia.
Speaker
Dr. Omer Bayraktar
Group Leader
Wellcome Sanger Institute
Dr. Omer Bayraktar is an international leader in the fields of spatial transcriptomics and glial biology. He studies brain tumor heterogeneity and brain cellular diversity using advanced cell-atlasing technologies, and is renowned for creating single cell and spatial multiomic atlases of the human brain in both health and disease. His team has developed pivotal computational tools, including cell2location (to map cell types in spatial transcriptomics) and cell2fate (to resolve temporal cellular trajectories from single cell data).
