All Publications


  • Combined protein and nucleic acid imaging reveals virus-dependent B cell and macrophage immunosuppression of tissue microenvironments. Immunity Jiang, S., Chan, C. N., Rovira-Clave, X., Chen, H., Bai, Y., Zhu, B., McCaffrey, E., Greenwald, N. F., Liu, C., Barlow, G. L., Weirather, J. L., Oliveria, J. P., Nakayama, T., Lee, I. T., Matter, M. S., Carlisle, A. E., Philips, D., Vazquez, G., Mukherjee, N., Busman-Sahay, K., Nekorchuk, M., Terry, M., Younger, S., Bosse, M., Demeter, J., Rodig, S. J., Tzankov, A., Goltsev, Y., McIlwain, D. R., Angelo, M., Estes, J. D., Nolan, G. P. 2022

    Abstract

    Understanding the mechanisms of HIV tissue persistence necessitates the ability to visualize tissue microenvironments where infected cells reside; however, technological barriers limit our ability to dissect the cellular components of these HIV reservoirs. Here, we developed protein and nucleic acid in situ imaging (PANINI) to simultaneously quantify DNA, RNA, and protein levels within these tissue compartments. By coupling PANINI with multiplexed ion beam imaging (MIBI), we measured over 30 parameters simultaneously across archival lymphoid tissues from healthy or simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected nonhuman primates. PANINI enabled the spatial dissection of cellular phenotypes, functional markers, and viral events resulting from infection. SIV infection induced IL-10 expression in lymphoid B cells, which correlated with local macrophage M2 polarization. This highlights a potential viral mechanism for conditioning an immunosuppressive tissue environment for virion production. The spatial multimodal framework here can be extended to decipher tissue responses in other infectious diseases and tumor biology.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.immuni.2022.03.020

    View details for PubMedID 35447093

  • Determinants of SARS-CoV-2 entry and replication in airway mucosal tissue and susceptibility in smokers. Cell reports. Medicine Nakayama, T., Lee, I. T., Jiang, S., Matter, M. S., Yan, C. H., Overdevest, J. B., Wu, C., Goltsev, Y., Shih, L., Liao, C., Zhu, B., Bai, Y., Lidsky, P., Xiao, Y., Zarabanda, D., Yang, A., Easwaran, M., Schurch, C. M., Chu, P., Chen, H., Stalder, A. K., McIlwain, D. R., Borchard, N. A., Gall, P. A., Dholakia, S. S., Le, W., Xu, L., Tai, C., Yeh, T., Erickson-Direnzo, E., Duran, J. M., Mertz, K. D., Hwang, P. H., Haslbauer, J. D., Jackson, P. K., Menter, T., Andino, R., Canoll, P. D., DeConde, A. S., Patel, Z. M., Tzankov, A., Nolan, G. P., Nayak, J. V. 2021: 100421

    Abstract

    Understanding viral tropism is an essential step towards reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission, decreasing mortality from COVID-19, and limiting opportunities for mutant strains to arise. Currently, little is known about the extent to which distinct tissue sites in the human head & neck region and proximal respiratory tract selectively permit SARS-CoV-2 infection and replication. In this translational study, we discover key variabilities in the expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2, essential SARS-CoV-2 entry factors, among the mucosal tissues of the human proximal airways. We show that SARS-CoV-2 infection is present in all examined head & neck tissues, with a notable tropism for the nasal cavity and tracheal mucosa. Finally, we uncover an association between smoking and higher SARS-CoV-2 viral infection in the human proximal airway, which may explain the increased susceptibility of smokers to developing severe COVID-19. This is at least partially explained by differences in IFN-beta1 levels between smokers and non-smokers.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.xcrm.2021.100421

    View details for PubMedID 34604819

  • Subcellular localization of biomolecules and drug distribution by high-definition ion beam imaging. Nature communications Rovira-Clave, X., Jiang, S., Bai, Y., Zhu, B., Barlow, G., Bhate, S., Coskun, A. F., Han, G., Ho, C. K., Hitzman, C., Chen, S., Bava, F., Nolan, G. P. 2021; 12 (1): 4628

    Abstract

    Simultaneous visualization of the relationship between multiple biomolecules and their ligands or small molecules at the nanometer scale in cells will enable greater understanding of how biological processes operate. We present here high-definition multiplex ion beam imaging (HD-MIBI), a secondary ion mass spectrometry approach capable of high-parameter imaging in 3D of targeted biological entities and exogenously added structurally-unmodified small molecules. With this technology, the atomic constituents of the biomolecules themselves can be used in our system as the "tag" and we demonstrate measurements down to ~30nm lateral resolution. We correlated the subcellular localization of the chemotherapy drug cisplatin simultaneously with five subnuclear structures. Cisplatin was preferentially enriched in nuclear speckles and excluded from closed-chromatin regions, indicative of a role for cisplatin in active regions of chromatin. Unexpectedly, cells surviving multi-drug treatment with cisplatin and the BET inhibitor JQ1 demonstrated near total cisplatin exclusion from the nucleus, suggesting that selective subcellular drug relocalization may modulate resistance to this important chemotherapeutic treatment. Multiplexed high-resolution imaging techniques, such as HD-MIBI, will enable studies of biomolecules and drug distributions in biologically relevant subcellular microenvironments by visualizing the processes themselves in concert, rather than inferring mechanism through surrogate analyses.

    View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-24822-1

    View details for PubMedID 34330905

  • Nanoscopic subcellular imaging enabled by ion beam tomography. Nature communications Coskun, A. F., Han, G., Ganesh, S., Chen, S., Clave, X. R., Harmsen, S., Jiang, S., Schurch, C. M., Bai, Y., Hitzman, C., Nolan, G. P. 2021; 12 (1): 789

    Abstract

    Multiplexed ion beam imaging (MIBI) has been previously used to profile multiple parameters in two dimensions in single cells within tissue slices. Here, a mathematical and technical framework for three-dimensional (3D) subcellular MIBI is presented. Ion-beam tomography (IBT) compiles ion beam images that are acquired iteratively across successive, multiple scans, and later assembled into a 3D format without loss of depth resolution. Algorithmic deconvolution, tailored for ion beams, is then applied to the transformed ion image series, yielding 4-fold enhanced ion beam data cubes. To further generate 3D sub-ion-beam-width precision visuals, isolated ion molecules are localized in the raw ion beam images, creating an approach coined as SILM, secondary ion beam localization microscopy, providing sub-25nm accuracy in original ion images. Using deep learning, a parameter-free reconstruction method for ion beam tomograms with high accuracy is developed for low-density targets. In cultured cancer cells and tissues, IBT enables accessible visualization of 3D volumetric distributions of genomic regions, RNA transcripts, and protein factors with 5nm axial resolution using isotope-enrichments and label-free elemental analyses. Multiparameter imaging of subcellular features at near macromolecular resolution is implemented by the IBT tools as a general biocomputation pipeline for imaging mass spectrometry.

    View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-20753-5

    View details for PubMedID 33542220

  • Adjacent Cell Marker Lateral Spillover Compensation and Reinforcement for Multiplexed Images. Frontiers in immunology Bai, Y., Zhu, B., Rovira-Clave, X., Chen, H., Markovic, M., Chan, C. N., Su, T., McIlwain, D. R., Estes, J. D., Keren, L., Nolan, G. P., Jiang, S. 2021; 12: 652631

    Abstract

    Multiplex imaging technologies are now routinely capable of measuring more than 40 antibody-labeled parameters in single cells. However, lateral spillage of signals in densely packed tissues presents an obstacle to the assignment of high-dimensional spatial features to individual cells for accurate cell-type annotation. We devised a method to correct for lateral spillage of cell surface markers between adjacent cells termed REinforcement Dynamic Spillover EliminAtion (REDSEA). The use of REDSEA decreased contaminating signals from neighboring cells. It improved the recovery of marker signals across both isotopic (i.e., Multiplexed Ion Beam Imaging) and immunofluorescent (i.e., Cyclic Immunofluorescence) multiplexed images resulting in a marked improvement in cell-type classification.

    View details for DOI 10.3389/fimmu.2021.652631

    View details for PubMedID 34295327

  • Multimodal Analysis of Composition and Spatial Architecture in Human Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Cell Ji, A. L., Rubin, A. J., Thrane, K. n., Jiang, S. n., Reynolds, D. L., Meyers, R. M., Guo, M. G., George, B. M., Mollbrink, A. n., Bergenstråhle, J. n., Larsson, L. n., Bai, Y. n., Zhu, B. n., Bhaduri, A. n., Meyers, J. M., Rovira-Clavé, X. n., Hollmig, S. T., Aasi, S. Z., Nolan, G. P., Lundeberg, J. n., Khavari, P. A. 2020

    Abstract

    To define the cellular composition and architecture of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), we combined single-cell RNA sequencing with spatial transcriptomics and multiplexed ion beam imaging from a series of human cSCCs and matched normal skin. cSCC exhibited four tumor subpopulations, three recapitulating normal epidermal states, and a tumor-specific keratinocyte (TSK) population unique to cancer, which localized to a fibrovascular niche. Integration of single-cell and spatial data mapped ligand-receptor networks to specific cell types, revealing TSK cells as a hub for intercellular communication. Multiple features of potential immunosuppression were observed, including T regulatory cell (Treg) co-localization with CD8 T cells in compartmentalized tumor stroma. Finally, single-cell characterization of human tumor xenografts and in vivo CRISPR screens identified essential roles for specific tumor subpopulation-enriched gene networks in tumorigenesis. These data define cSCC tumor and stromal cell subpopulations, the spatial niches where they interact, and the communicating gene networks that they engage in cancer.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cell.2020.05.039

    View details for PubMedID 32579974

  • Mass spectroscopy-based highly multiplexed super-resolution imaging method for fine details of tumor microenvironment monitoring and tumor-immune cell interactions Bai, Y., Zhu, B., Angelo, M., Zhao, Y., Jiang, S., Clave, X., Nolan, G. BMC. 2019
  • Mapping the spatial architecture of acute myeloid leukemia in the bone marrow microenvironment by multiplexed ion beam imaging Rovira-Clave, X., Jiang, S., Bai, Y., Zhu, B., Bosse, M., Angelo, M., Banz, Y., Schurch, C., Nolan, G. BMC. 2019
  • Multiplexed Imaging for the simultaneous detection of nucleic acids and proteins to dissect the tissue immune landscape and microenvironment of viral diseases Jiang, S., Clave, X., Chan, C., Zhu, B., Bai, Y., Bosse, M., McIlwain, D., Bendall, S., Angelo, M., Estes, J., Nolan, G. BMC. 2019
  • Microbiome spatial patterns as markers of cancer immune therapy response Zhu, B., Bai, Y., Jiang, S., Rovira-Clave, X., Sonnenburg, J., Nolan, G. BMC. 2019