Applying a single-cell GPS to discover novel spatial biomarkers in FFPE tissues

Kohta Miyawaki, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist at Kyushu University and a research fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Born in Gumma prefecture, famous for hot springs and ski resorts, he studied medicine at Chiba University. He initiated his research career at the Medical University of South Carolina. During his residency and fellowship training at hospitals in Tokyo, he became interested in hematologic malignancies, his current sub-specialty. His research interests include hematopoietic/progenitor cell development and studying the biology of the tumor microenvironment. Dr. Miyawaki is an avid enthusiast of emerging technologies and is an early pioneer in Asia-Pacific in applying CODEX technology for clinical research.

Aaron is the cofounder and CSO of Enable Medicine. Prior to founding Enable Medicine, Aaron completed his PhD at Stanford in Bioengineering, where he was advised by Dr. Sam Gambhir, Chair of Radiology and Director of the Molecular Imaging Program. Aaron’s research has focused on the development and application of multi-dimensional imaging tools to study the immune system and cancer. He has led clinical translation efforts of imaging tools that allow for one to scan a patient’s whole body and detect where activated immune cells are located, to application of techniques that allow for high-plex single cell spatial analysis. Aaron has been recognized for his research with numerous awards including the Siebel Fellowship, Fulbright Fellowship, Stanford BIO-X Fellowship, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and the Alavi-Mandell Award from the Society for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. He has co-authored over 20 publications in journals such as Science Translational Medicine, Journal for Clinical Investigation, and PNAS.

Oliver Braubach received his doctorate from Dalhousie University in 2011. He then completed postdoctoral appointments at Yale and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. During this time, he used state-of-the-art optical imaging and optogenetic technologies to investigate the structure and function of the nervous system. Oliver's most recent academic appointment was at Cedars-Sinai where he conducted research in line with his background in optical imaging. It was during this time that Oliver started to use the CODEX® System and that he decided to follow his excitement for highly multiplexed imaging by joining Akoya. As a Senior Applications Scientist, Oliver has become the scientific evangelist for the CODEX workflow as he focuses his time on application development.