Insights into the Pathogenesis of COVID-19 as Revealed by Spatial Biology

Joe Beechem joined NanoString in 2012 as the Senior Vice President of Research and Development and is now also the company's Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Beechem leads a multidisciplinary team at NanoString based in Seattle, WA where he and his colleagues develop innovative technology platforms and assays based on the company's nucleic-acid based optical barcodes for multiplexed quantification of biomolecules. He has become a scientific powerhouse for the company, co-inventing 3D Biology - the simultaneous profiling of DNA, RNA, and Protein on the nCounter® system - as well as the GeoMx® Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP), which affords highly-multiplexed and quantitative profiling of RNA and protein from tissue sections in user-defined geographic regions of interest. At NanoString, Dr. Beechem has played an integral role in bringing the Hyb and Seq™ chemistry to life, making NGS from FFPE sections without library prep a reality. Dr. Beechem is an author on over 150 peer-reviewed papers in diverse fields: biomathematics, physics, chemistry, physiology, spectroscopy, diagnostics, medicine and biology. He received a doctorate in Biophysics from The Johns Hopkins University and started his career as a tenure-track faculty member at Vanderbilt University. His varied skills were sought-after in industry; in 2004, he joined Invitrogen as their Chief Science/Technology Officer and quickly rose to become the Head of R&D, Advanced Sequencing Technologies.

Dr. Christopher Mason is an Associate Professor of Genomics, Physiology, and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Director of the WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction, as well as an affiliate of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), Rockefeller University, Harvard Medical School, and Yale Law School. The Mason laboratory develops and deploys new biochemical and computational methods in functional genomics to elucidate the genetic basis of human disease and physiology. We create and deploy novel techniques in next-generation sequencing and algorithms for: tumor evolution, genome evolution, DNA and RNA modifications, and genome/epigenome engineering. We also work closely with NIST/FDA to build international standards for these methods (SEQC2, IMMSA, and Epigenomics QC groups), to ensure clinical-quality genome measurements and editing. We also work with NASA to build integrated molecular portraits of genomes, epigenomes, transcriptomes, and metagenomes for astronauts, which help establish the molecular foundations and genetic defenses for enabling long-term human spaceflight. He has won the NIH's Transformative R01 Award, the NASA Group Achievement Award, the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance Young Investigator award, the Hirschl-Weill-Caulier Career Scientist Award, the Vallee Scholar Award, the CDC Honor Award for Standardization of Clinical Testing, and the WorldQuant Foundation Scholar Award. He was named as one of the "Brilliant Ten" Scientists by Popular Science, featured as a TEDMED speaker, and called "The Genius of Genetics" by 92Y. He has >200 peer-reviewed papers and scholarly works that have been featured on the covers of Nature, Science, Cell, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Microbiology, and Neuron, as well as legal briefs cited by the U.S. District Court and U.S. Supreme Court. Coverage of his work has also appeared on the covers of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, TIME, The LA Times, and across many media (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN, PBS, NASA, NatGeo). He is an inventor on four patents, co-founded five biotechnology start-up companies, and serves as an advisor to many others. He lives with his daughter and wife in Brooklyn, NY.

Dr. Robert Schwartz is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and of the Department of Physiology, and Biophysics, and Systems Biology at Weill Cornell Medicine. He completed his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. His thesis work was on the derivation of stem cell derived hepatocytes and in vitro liver model systems. He completed his insternship and residency in Internal Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis/Barnes Jewish Hospital. His fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology with a focus on hepatology was completed at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He did a postdoc at MIT and his research continued to focus on the development of stem cell derived hepatocytes as a model system to study human liver disease and for clinical therapy. In his own lab at Weill Cornell Medical College he has continued to focus his work on the clinical translation and research applications of stem cell derived hepatocytes and primary human hepatocytes. In recognition of his work, he was an University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellow, an AGA Research Scholar, a UEG Rising Scholar, a Bohmfalk Clinical Scholar, and an Irma Hirsch Trust Scholar. He has >50 peer-reviewed papers and scholarly works that have been featured in Nature, Cell, Nature Chemical Biology, Cell Stem Cell, Journal for Clinical Investigation, and Gastroenterology. He is an inventor on three patents.