AI-Driven Precision Pathology Meets Spatial Biology

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AI-Driven Precision Pathology Meets Spatial Biology

NanoString has partnered with Visiopharm® A/S, a leader in the digital pathology space, to automate image analysis and Region of Interest (ROI) selection for the GeoMx® Digital Spatial Profiler. GeoMx customers can leverage Oncotopix® Discovery AI-driven software to enhance tissue segmentation, speed up the ROI selection process, and standardize GeoMx results.

This integration of spatial multiomics with AI image analysis enables:

Improved accuracy for biomarker discovery
The ability to understand disease better
Enhanced and more accurate predictive and prognostic biomarkers

Improved success in drug discovery and development
Generation of new therapeutic hypotheses
Scale up to large-cohort spatial studies

Oncotopix Discovery for GeoMx DSP

Oncotopix Discovery for GeoMx DSP is a custom software offering from Visiopharm that can be used to:

Enhance GeoMx tissue segmentation using AI
Standardize GeoMx results with per-cell analyses
Streamline GeoMx ROI selection with image overlay and automated ROI placement

Adding Oncotopix Discovery to the GeoMx workflow gives you access to:

Analysis APPs

A Pathologist in Your Pocket

Enhanced Segmentation

Easy Image Overlay

Workflow Automation

Image Metrics

Analysis APPs

Pre-trained Analysis Modules (APPS)
Leverage pre-trained analysis modules (APPs) to accelerate
image analysis workflow development. Visit the Visiopharm
APP Center to find templates to begin image analysis. Users can
get started with GeoMx-specific APPs or choose from among
120+ other Visiopharm APPs.

Train your own APP

A Pathologist in Your Pocket

Supercharge your spatial multiomics studies on GeoMx DSP with the power of automated tissue markup and ROI selection using Oncotopix Discovery:

Use an H&E and/or immunofluorescence (IF) stained image to mark up the tissue and identify functional structures and cell types, making ROI selection simpler and faster.
Overlay the marked-up image with the GeoMx image for rapid ROI transfer using the Tissuealign module.
Set up rules for ROI selection that allow you to cut down on analysis time and automate your GeoMx studies.

Oncotopix Discovery marks up the different functional compartments of a head and neck cancer FFPE tissue section from an H&E-stained image. Image courtesy of Arutha Kulasinghe, PhD, University
of Queensland.

Enhanced Segmentation

Oncotopix Discovery can enhance enrichment for GeoMx profiling to get a cleaner profiling signature from selected tissue compartments.

Exclusion of Unwanted Regions

Train deep learning algorithms to exclude cell-types or tissue regions that are unwanted, such as autofluorescent cells, regions of necrosis, blood vessels, etc.

Selection of cells by punctate staining

Select cells stained with RNAscope ISH or DNA FISH probes for deep exploration of expression in the microbiome, viral infected tissue, or the tumor microenvironment. Additional measurements of ISH spots can be made to quantify signals in profiled areas.

Contouring

Capture signaling gradients by creating profiling contours around structures, individual cells, or perturbation points. For sparse cell types, an annular ring around the sparse cells can serve as a local background measurement to more clearly detect expression of sparse cells in the tissue.

Easy Image Overlay

Use the Tissuealign module to mark key tissue landmarks to register H&E or other images with the GeoMx image for simple ROI transfer and multimodal image analysis. Images do not need to be from the same instrument or at the same magnification.

Workflow Automation

Use APPs to Segment the tissue based on expression patterns, then automate the placement of ROIs using desired rules such as >90% tumor, 50% tumor and 50% stroma, 100% stroma. Use Deep Learning apps to handle intensity variability across tissues, minimizing time during the GeoMx experiment the adjust thresholds. Deploy APPs across multi-site studies to improve reproducibility and minimize ramp up time.

Image Metrics

Phenotype and Quantify Cells in the Areas of Illumination

How It Works

Integrate digital pathology into your GeoMx workflow by importing the GeoMx IF stained image files (OME.TIFF) into Oncotopix Discovery, processing the images using a Visiopharm APP of your choice to select ROIs and define AOIs, and then loading the exported OME.XML files back into the GeoMx Control Center for barcode collection and subsequent counting using the nCounter Analysis System or an Illumina sequencer. Downstream expression analysis is done in the DSP Data Analysis Center or open-source tools while further image analysis such as cell counting and tissue phenotyping can be done using Oncotopix Discovery.