10x Genomics announced on Oct. 7 a research collaboration with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center to advance the use of single-cell and spatial technologies in both solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.
The first of two projects plans to use 10x’s Flex Apex single-cell sequencing and Xenium and Atera spatial platforms to study tumor samples from patients with advanced bladder cancer treated with antibody-drug conjugates, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and other therapies. The goal is to correlate drug target expression and tumor microenvironment features with treatment response and clinical outcomes, then explore biomarkers that could one day help inform therapy selection.
The other project will use the Flex Apex platform to investigate residual disease detection in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The organizations noted that monitoring for residual leukemic cells after treatment, which guides care, currently relies on a “patchwork” of separate technologies. 10x and Fred Hutch plan to investigate whether single-cell analysis can improve on current gold-standard methods.
Lawrence Fong, scientific director of Fred Hutch’s Integrated Immunotherapy Research Center and leader of the collaboration, said in a statement that the project could help characterize the cellular and molecular responses to cancer treatments and guide treatment decisions.
Additionally, 10x and Fred Hutch plan to build a framework for future clinical reporting, defining how single-cell and spatial features could support treatment planning in patients with cancer.
