Methods to Enable Spatial Transcriptomics of Bone Tissues

Our goal is to find better therapeutic approaches to treat a human bone cancer called osteosarcoma. In order to do so, we want to uncover the biological processes responsible for the onset of this tumor and above all for the development of its metastasis, which is deleting cause of patient's death. By employing spatial transcriptomics analysis on several matching specimens of human primary osteosarcoma line metastasis, we located in multiple patient common cell populations residing within the tumoral areas, and by comparing them, we identified several key genes which may represent valuable therapeutic targets to prevent lung metastasis.

Special transcriptomics analysis of heart tissue, such as bone have been very challenging because of the inability to preserve good quality RNA and tissue morphology, while at the same time processing the heart tissue for sectioning. Our protocol addresses this gap, allowing researchers to successfully apply special transcriptomics analysis also to heart tissues.