At the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine (EIPM) we strive to be at the forefront of translational research. In conjunction with the WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction, we are delighted to announce our latest technological gem: a CyTOF coupled to the Hyperion module – one of only 30 of its kind currently in use and the only one in the NYC.
This new cutting-edge technology was acquired thanks to the generous donation of Igor Tulchinsky and WorldQuant LLC. EIPM director Dr. Olivier Elemento, who co-directs the WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction believes that “the CyTOF and Hyperion will enable exciting new discoveries regarding the structure of disease-tissue at the single cell level, especially the role of immune cells”.
Cytometry by time-of-flight (CyTOF) is a recently developed technology for the real-time analysis of single cells and is a powerful tool expected to have significant clinical applications. CyTOF technology can be used to screen drug candidates for changes in immunophenotype or cell function. Therefore, CyTOF is a valuable tool for identifying novel therapeutic targets or evaluating newly developed drugs. Single-cell experiments provide a wealth of information that reaches above cell population-averaged measurements and enables access to dynamic cell phenotypes at the cellular level expanding the possible applications in experimentation in precision medicine.
The extension of Hyperion is complementing the EIPM workflow by tackling current boundaries of tissue imaging, it enables our researchers to monitor the activity of 4 to 37 individual protein targets simultaneously from a single scan, without signal overlap. Additionally, it can be used to identify new protein biomarkers and deeply profile tissue microenvironments at subcellular resolution while preserving the information in tissue architecture and cellular morphology and preserve precious samples and reduce variability by eliminating dependency on serial sections.
Omar Aly, a member of the EIPM working with Dr. Elemento, was excited to demonstrate how the Hyperion system works. He explained that it directs a focused laser beam at 1 μm to sample proteins stained with metal-tagged antibodies and directs these “metal” tags to the analysis by inductively coupled plasma time-of-flight (TOF) technology, the basis of CyTOF mass cytometers. A discrete signal from each ionized metal tag is detected based on differences in mass instead of wavelength and at 1 Da resolution with minimal background. Using this system allows to deeply interrogate tissues and tumors at subcellular resolution while preserving the information in tissue architecture and cellular morphology to uncover new biomarker correlations and cell interactions, with the ability to utilize up to 135 channels to detect additional parameters, the Hyperion Imaging System.”
The WorldQuant Initiative Press Release from Weill Cornell Medicine appears here.
# # #