Spatial Single-Cell Metabolomics: Decoding Metabolism One Cell at a Time
Abstract:
Metabolism is increasingly recognized not just as the engine of cellular activity, but as a key regulator of health, disease, and therapeutic response. At the same time, spatial and single-cell omics are transforming biology by enabling unprecedented resolution in the study of complex tissues. In this talk, I will present our advances in spatial and single-cell metabolomics—technologies that bring metabolic readouts to the single-cell level with spatial context, offering insights closest to phenotype. I will introduce METASPACE, an open cloud platform that powers metabolite identification across thousands of public datasets and supports research in medicine and pharmacology. I will also showcase SpaceM, a method for high-throughput, spatial single-cell metabolomics, capable of profiling over 100 metabolites across hundreds of thousands of cells. I will illustrate its applications in dissecting T cell metabolic states under immune modulation, and in distinguishing tumor phenotypes in patient-derived pancreatic cancer samples. This presentation will highlight the state of the art in spatial and single-cell metabolomics and explore their potential in biology, drug discovery, and precision medicine.
Biography:
Theodore Alexandrov is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). His mission is to develop technologies that decode biology and enable the development of novel therapies with single-cell precision. Previously, he was a research team leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), where he also established and directed the EMBL Metabolomics Core Facility. At UCSD, he leads a multidisciplinary team of scientists and software engineers focused on creating translational technologies for spatial and single-cell metabolomics (ateam.ucsd.edu). His team developed METASPACE, a cloud platform for spatial metabolomics used by thousands of researchers worldwide, and SpaceM, a high-throughput method for probing metabolism at single-cell resolution. He is also a co-founder of DeepCyte, a startup advancing precision therapeutics through “metabolic intelligence” – the integration of single-cell metabolomics, data, and AI.
Metabolism is increasingly recognized not just as the engine of cellular activity, but as a key regulator of health, disease, and therapeutic response. At the same time, spatial and single-cell omics are transforming biology by enabling unprecedented resolution in the study of complex tissues. In this talk, I will present our advances in spatial and single-cell metabolomics—technologies that bring metabolic readouts to the single-cell level with spatial context, offering insights closest to phenotype. I will introduce METASPACE, an open cloud platform that powers metabolite identification across thousands of public datasets and supports research in medicine and pharmacology. I will also showcase SpaceM, a method for high-throughput, spatial single-cell metabolomics, capable of profiling over 100 metabolites across hundreds of thousands of cells. I will illustrate its applications in dissecting T cell metabolic states under immune modulation, and in distinguishing tumor phenotypes in patient-derived pancreatic cancer samples. This presentation will highlight the state of the art in spatial and single-cell metabolomics and explore their potential in biology, drug discovery, and precision medicine.
Biography:
Theodore Alexandrov is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). His mission is to develop technologies that decode biology and enable the development of novel therapies with single-cell precision. Previously, he was a research team leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), where he also established and directed the EMBL Metabolomics Core Facility. At UCSD, he leads a multidisciplinary team of scientists and software engineers focused on creating translational technologies for spatial and single-cell metabolomics (ateam.ucsd.edu). His team developed METASPACE, a cloud platform for spatial metabolomics used by thousands of researchers worldwide, and SpaceM, a high-throughput method for probing metabolism at single-cell resolution. He is also a co-founder of DeepCyte, a startup advancing precision therapeutics through “metabolic intelligence” – the integration of single-cell metabolomics, data, and AI.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- Prof. Bart Deplancke
Contact
- joanna.rusnok@epfl.ch