The human hippocampus plays a critical role in memory and emotion, with dysfunction implicated in numerous neuropsychiatric disorders. However, understanding its molecular pathology within the context of spatial architecture has remained challenging. This talk will introduce spatial proteomics as an emerging tool for dissecting complex cellular neighborhoods and their functions at single-cell resolution. It helped address two key problems in spatial transcriptomics: Can we detect cellular morphology? Are RNAs the best proxies for proteins? By utilizing 25-plex spatial proteomics through co-detection by indexing (CODEX), we established the experimental platform for profiling human hippocampus and developed a computational framework through the lens of cellular neighborhoods.

Biography:
Dr. Yang Xiao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Michigan. She earned her Bachelor's degree from McGill University and her PhD from Yale University. She conducted postdoctoral training under the mentorship of Dr. Kam Leong at Columbia University. Dr. Xiao played a crucial role in developing innovative spatial platforms, including DBiT-seq for spatial mRNA sequencing and spatial ATAC-seq for open chromatin profiling. Her research group at U-Mich focuses on the spatial systems biology of traumatic brain injury, leveraging these cutting-edge spatial technologies to understand cellular dynamics in neurological disorders.

This presentation will be held in 2036 Palmer Commons. There will also be a remote viewing option via Zoom.