SPATIAL Biology Service
Spatial biology for drug programmes.
We analyse spatial omics data for discovery teams. The wet lab stays with you or with one of our partners; we take the images and return quantified endpoints, the per-cell tables behind them and the methods. Our models go deepest in brain, and we have run programmes in other tissues, from tumour to immune. We advise on markers and study design before the first slide is stained.
Where it fits in a programme
Four questions we are usually brought in to answer.
Target validation
Where the target sits in patient tissue
Bulk expression says a target is present. It does not say which cells carry it, in which state, or how close they sit to the pathology you intend to change.
What we measure
- Marker intensity per cell, not per field of view
- Cell type from morphology and phenotype together
- Region, layer and vasculature for every cell
- Distance from each cell to the nearest lesion
What comes back
- The share of each population carrying the target, by region and by stage
- The per-cell table every figure was made from
Pharmacodynamics
Whether the compound changes the tissue
Treated and control run through the same pipeline, so a difference between arms is a difference in the tissue rather than in how the slides were handled.
What we measure
- Cell composition per region
- Activation state of glia and infiltrating immune cells
- Morphology: size, shape and branching
- Pathology or lesion load, and how it is distributed
What comes back
- Effect size per endpoint with the statistics behind it
- Figures that regenerate when the cohort changes
Stratification
Which patients carry the phenotype
Spatial features separate patients that bulk measurements put in the same group.
What we measure
- Recurrent neighbourhoods across the cohort
- Morphometric features per cell
- Pathology or lesion load per region
What comes back
- Candidate biomarkers ranked, with the value for every sample
- One row per sample, ready for your statistician
Cohort scale
The same analysis across every sample
We have run studies of more than 200 samples. Each one goes through the same pipeline with quality control per slide, so batch effects stay distinguishable from biological differences.
What we measure
- One pipeline, every sample, no hand tuning
- Quality control before anything is measured
- Batch structure recorded and corrected
What comes back
- A single table across the cohort
- A written record of what ran, on what, and when
How we work
Practical details.
We advise before you stain
The analysis you want constrains the data you need: markers, resolution, controls and how many sections. We know the instruments and the software, so that conversation happens before the experiment, not after.
You send data, not tissue
Sections stay with your lab or with one of our partners. We take the images in any common format, whole slides included, and check them before anything is measured.
Set-up, then routine
A new assay and endpoint usually takes about three months to set up. Once it is standardised and automated, an analysis comes back within 72 hours.
Research use
The service is for research. We do not currently run under GLP or GxP.
Published and funded
Client work stays confidential. This is what is in the open literature and on the public record.
How a project runs
Scope the study with us
The question, the cohort, the markers and the tissue. We say what is feasible, what we would stain differently, and what the analysis will and will not support.
Send the data
Any common format, whole slides included. We check quality first and flag anything that will limit the analysis.
We run the analysis
Registration, segmentation, pathology classification, phenotyping and spatial statistics, run by our team and checked against your tissue.
You get the results
Tables, labelled images and figures, with a written summary of the methods. The project stays in SPATIAL 2 so your team can keep exploring it.
What you get back
Everything is yours, including the intermediate data. Pricing is agreed per study.
- A per-cell table with marker intensities, morphology, phenotype and coordinates
- An object table for aggregates, lesions and other pathology
- Full-resolution masks and overlays you can show in a figure
- The comparisons you asked for, with the statistics behind them
- A written summary of methods and quality control
- The whole project in SPATIALTM 2, ready to explore and share