How Three Oncology Researchers Are Applying Spatial Proteomics
von RareCyte
Blog by Anna Green
At this year's American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, we spoke with three researchers using the Orion™ platform across different areas of cancer biology. Their work spans head and neck cancer biomarker development, ovarian cancer evolution, and early cancer lesions — but a common thread runs through all three conversations: the challenge of translating spatial proteomics insight into something clinically actionable.
Here is what they shared.
Building scalable spatial biomarker workflows for head and neck cancer
Dr. Kevin Byrd, Stratica Biosciences
Dr. Byrd's research focuses on building virtual tissue models across the natural history of head and neck cancer — from healthy tissue through premalignant lesions to multiple disease subtypes, including HPV-associated cases and a less-characterized risk-factor-negative cohort. The work spans institutions including VCU, UPenn, UNC, the University of Miami, and the University of Toronto.
The scale of that ambition shapes how his team approaches spatial proteomics. Rather than maximizing plex for exploratory purposes, they prioritize getting to a minimal, clinically actionable signature.
"Sometimes nine or ten or thirteen different RNA molecules mean one protein," he explained. "We start to collapse those signatures of one technology into the next, then back to H&E. Eventually we think we can use that protein signature as an adjuvant diagnostic or prognostic technology for the clinic."
For Dr. Byrd and his team, the non-cyclic nature of Orion is a practical requirement, not a preference. "Within about an hour we could take a pool of about 17 markers — markers we've already vetted, markers we actually think are going to be useful — and generate that data." Paired with AI-based analysis tools developed through his startup Stratica, the goal is to make spatially resolved signatures discernible and deployable quickly.
His advice for researchers entering the spatial proteomics space was straightforward: start with a specific question, and bring in a multidisciplinary team. "When you bring in clinicians, pathologists, immunologists, even virologists, they all have a slightly different interest. That disciplinarity is really important for thinking about the next steps together."
Integrating protein and genomic data on a single tissue section
Dr. Tanjina Kader, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Kader studies the progression of high-grade serous ovarian cancer from normal cells — a research area where understanding the earliest molecular changes is critical.
Her work with Orion goes beyond standard spatial proteomics. Because Orion has single-round staining, tissue integrity is maintained — allowing a modified DNA FISH protocol to be applied to the same section for simultaneous characterization of protein expression and chromosomal alterations.
"I use Orion in particular because it is one shot," Dr. Kader explained. "It helps the tissue to adhere very well on the specimen. And after Orion I use the same section for a modified DNA FISH protocol — so it allows me to actually integrate protein and chromosomal changes together at the same time."
The clinical implications of this approach are direct. DNA FISH is already used in clinical diagnostics, which means a validated workflow combining spatial proteomics with FISH could have a clear path toward clinical adoption. For researchers studying cancer evolution, the ability to co-register genetic and proteomic data on a single section opens questions that neither technology could answer independently.
Using high-plex discovery to define minimal clinical panels
Dr. Peter Sorger, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Sorger's lab is focused on the earliest cancer lesions — the precursor states that precede clinical disease in melanoma, colorectal cancer, and ovarian cancer. The underlying question is whether spatial profiling can identify which early lesions are dangerous before treatment would normally begin.
His perspective on the clinical translation of high-plex spatial proteomics is clear-eyed about what the transition actually requires.
"As you get into a clinical application, you actually need to reduce that complexity," Dr. Sorger said. "You want a much more focused set of questions, and you obviously want to get the cost down and the performance up."
In practice, Dr. Sorger and his team use higher-plex discovery panels — in the range of 40 to 80 markers — on Orion to characterize biology broadly, then reduces those signatures to mid-plex panels of 12 to 14 markers suitable for clinical deployment. The H&E channel is retained throughout as an anchor to standard pathology workflows.
What distinguishes Orion in his view is not the plex number itself, but the capacity to query specific biology in a directed way. "It's really that capacity to query specific pieces of biology in parallel or sequentially. As opposed to just a library of all proteins you could acquire, it's really answering specific questions — and it's a lot more actionable."
A consistent theme across three research programs
Each of these researchers is working at a different stage of the discovery-to-clinical. Dr. Byrd is building scalable workflows designed for clinical deployment from the start. Dr. Kader is developing novel multimodal methods. Dr. Sorger is using high-plex discovery to systematically narrow toward mid-plex clinical panels.
What connects their approaches is the underlying workflow requirement: tissue and antigen preservation across a single staining round, sufficient plex depth to resolve relevant biology, and data that can support confident downstream decisions — whether that is a biomarker signature, a patient stratification strategy, or a companion diagnostic.
Orion is RareCyte's spatial proteomics platform, designed for translational and clinical research workflows. It delivers 20 channels in a single round with automated, clinical-scale imaging.