Introducing the Spatial Technologies Unit: A New Era in Research
Published 9/3/2025
We are thrilled to announce that DF/HCC has now created a partnership with the Spatial Technologies Unit (STU) core facility for the members to use at a reduced cost. The STU at BIDMC is a production-grade facility supporting DF/HCC investigators in cutting-edge spatial tissue profiling and single-cell studies; often from the same tissue block. The STU operates across a wide range of projects, including basic science, translational research, clinical trials (correlative and endpoint studies), and industry-sponsored investigations. It also serves as a core facility for programmatic grants (e.g., U54, P01), and as an NIH Tissue Mapping Center for the Human Biomolecular Atlas Project (HuBMAP).
The STU is a groundbreaking initiative designed to make cutting-edge spatial and single cell technologies accessible to researchers in academia and industry. Under the leadership of Ioannis Vlachos, Associate Professor of Pathology, (HMS) and Shuoshuo Wang, Instructor of Pathology, (HMS), the STU is poised to become a pivotal resource, offering expertise, training, and education to those eager to harness the power of advanced scientific tools. By integrating spatial technologies with supportive equipment such as next-generation sequencing (NGS), tissue processing, imaging, and bioinformatics, the STU provides comprehensive services that empower researchers to focus on scientific discovery.
The STU is committed to supporting diverse projects, starting from consultation to match the right technologies with project needs, budget, and timeline. The STU team performs all aspects of single cell and spatial assays in-house, including tissue preparations, staining, and sequencing, ensuring control over the timeline and quality of service. Additionally, the STU offers downstream bioinformatic analyses for the generated single cell and spatial data, providing a seamless experience from start to finish.
Also playing a vital role in education and training, offering seminars, workshops, and hands-on training to researchers, the STU’s educational mission is to empower scientists with the knowledge and skills needed to leverage spatial and single cell technologies effectively. Whether you're a physician, principal investigator, student, researcher, or investor, the STU's training/education offerings can be customized to meet your strategic needs.
The significant investment in automation, robotics, and extensive production-grade protocol development enables the STU to provide robust, repeatable, and highly scalable services. The STU personnel is supporting dozens of grant applications per year, including NIH P01, U54, R01, R21, and K awards, or grants and projects supported by Foundations and the Industry.
Please join us in welcoming the Spatial Technologies Unit to the forefront of scientific research. We look forward to collaborating with researchers nationwide and contributing to the advancement of science and discovery.
Please see below some of the assays and capabilities of the facility:
Spatial Transcriptomics & Proteomics: 10x Genomics Xenium, Visium (v1, v2, HD), Vizgen MERSCOPE, NanoString GeoMx DSP, Akoya PhenoCycler Fusion and PhenoImager HT.
Spatial Sequencing: Singular Genomics G4X
Single Cell Profiling: Fully automated systems such as the 10x Genomics Chromium Connect and Chromium X for single-cell RNA sequencing (fresh, frozen, FFPE), immunoprofiling, and CITE-Seq assays.
Super-Resolution Imaging: Bruker Vutara VXL microscopy platform for subcellular resolution imaging.
Supporting Capabilities: Automated slide staining (Leica Bond Rx), tissue microarray generation (3DHISTECH TMA GrandMaster), and automated tissue dissociation (S2 Singulator).
Data Analysis: Bioinformatics support for all data generated in the facility