The 48th Annual Meeting of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan

chairperson：Hitoshi Matsui (Yokogawa Electric Corporation)

High-Precision Spatial Omics for Capturing Cancer Progression

The importance of personalized medicine, tailored to each individual patient, is increasing for establishing effective treatment strategies for various diseases, including cancer. However, conventional personalized medicine relies on known diagnostic markers and treatment records derived from large-scale data, making it difficult to address new cases, unknown pathologies, and rare diseases. To overcome these limitations, methods were needed to directly detect and analyze abnormal cells within tissues, their surrounding environment, and even the causative molecules. However, existing technologies have been unable to capture the relationship between the activation of intercellular signaling pathways and cellular states within tissues at sufficient resolution. To address this issue, we developed a novel antibody, the “Precise Emission Canceling Antibody (PECAb).” PECAb enables post-staining cancellation of fluorescent immunostaining signals, facilitating advanced analysis involving repeated staining and quenching in a tissue sample. This innovation established a world-leading “spatial omics” analysis platform capable of simultaneously detecting up to 206 different proteins, including signaling molecules, within the same tissue while preserving the spatial arrangement of cells. *The antibody name “PECAb” originates from the English baby game “Peek-a-boo,” reflecting its ability to hide and reveal stained signals.
By analyzing the vast amount of data obtained, we succeeded for the first time globally in reconstructing pseudo-temporal state transitions of individual cells within tissues and inferring the activation dynamics of multiple signaling pathways. Furthermore, applying this technology to clinical cancer specimens enabled us to capture intermediate states during the acquisition of metastatic potential by cancer cells and to identify the signaling molecules responsible for these transitions at the individual patient level. This groundbreaking achievement elucidates the pathway cancer cells take toward metastasis and holds potential for future application as a method to identify optimal therapeutic targets (intervention points) for each patient. This seminar will introduce the results of this research and the current status of its development.