Tuesday, 27th of January 2026, at 9:00 am
Chair: Aoife Gahlawat
Cheuk Ting Wu
Imaging Mass Cytometry as a powerful platform to map dynamic liver repair after spatially fractionated radiotherapy (SFRT)
Institute of Anatomy, University of Bern
Radiation induced liver toxicity remains a major obstacle preventing radiotherapy from becoming a standard treatment for primary liver cancer, particularly hepatocellular carcinoma, which is frequently resistant to systemic therapies. Spatially fractionated radiotherapy (SFRT), including microbeam and minibeam, has emerged as a promising treatment in several preclinical cancer models by delivering very high peak doses through narrow beamlets while sparing the surrounding normal tissues (Engels et al. 2025; Fernandez-Palomo et al. 2020; Smyth et al. 2016; Trappetti et al. 2021, 2025). The recent successful clinical implementation of minibeam radiotherapy at the Mayo Clinic (Grams et al. 2024) further highlights its translational potential.
Despite encouraging outcomes, SFRT has never been studied in the liver due to the extreme radiosensitivity in the liver, and the underlying biological mechanisms driving normal tissue sparing and tumour control remain poorly understood.
In this project, we aim to evaluate SFRT as a therapeutic strategy for hepatocellular carcinoma by characterizing both normal tissue responses and antitumour efficacy. Using Imaging Mass Cytometry with a liver tailored antibody panel, we can resolve dynamic spatial interactions between hepatic and immune cell population in normal liver following microbeam irradiation. In the coming phase, we will extend this analysis to irradiated tumour models to identify cell type specific responses and mechanistic pathways that may contribute to therapeutic benefit.
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Dr. Cheuk Ting Wu is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Anatomy, University of Bern. Originally from Hong Kong, she earned her BSc in Molecular Biotechnology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, an MSc in Cancer Biology from the University of Zurich, and a PhD in Cancer Biology from the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Hospital Zurich. Her research focuses on translational cancer biology, with a particular emphasis on spatially fractionated radiotherapy and its application in liver cancer. She utilizes advanced imaging techniques, including imaging mass cytometry, to investigate tissue-sparing mechanisms and antitumour responses.
Jayden Gittens
Characterising the tumour microenvironment of liver metastases with imaging mass cytometry
University of Liverpool, UK
Liver metastasis is a major driver of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Colorectal cancer (CRC) has a high propensity to metastasise to the liver, engendering poorer outcomes for patients. To investigate the microenvironmental features that define the metastatic site, we employed Hyperion IMC.
We leveraged a TMA of 25 matched primary and metastatic CRC patients. Our 21-plex antibody panel targeted major cellular lineages found within the TME. The IMCSegmentationPipeline was used to segment and pre-process images for downstream phenotyping and spatial analyses. 13 cell types identified by IMC. Myeloid and stromal cells were the most abundant within the TME. Clustering revealed enrichment of two TME cellular neighbourhoods (CNs) at the metastatic site, where CN 2 comprised primarily macrophages and stromal cells. Further spatial analysis revealed significant pairwise interactions between M2 macrophages and Collagen 1+ fibroblasts, Vimentin+ fibroblasts, and neutrophils.
With Hyperion IMC we are deconvoluting the spatial architecture found in liver metastases. We also aim to further characterise the TME with GeoMx to complement our findings on a transcriptional level.
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Jayden Gittens is a third-year MD/PhD student at the University of Liverpool, working within the Tumour Microenvironment (TME) team under the supervision of Professor Ainhoa Mielgo. His current doctoral research combines spatial and single-cell technologies focusing on interrogating samples of colorectal or pancreatic liver metastases from patients within the North West of England. To investigate the spatial aspects of the TME, Jayden has used Hyperion imaging mass cytometry and data from GeoMx digital spatial profiling experiments. He has combined single-cell RNA sequencing datasets with in vitro and in vivo models to dissect the immune and stromal interactions that influence tumour progression. Following the PhD, Jayden will return to medical school.