Spatial Biology – The New Frontier | June 16-17, 2026 | Rockville, MD
SPATIAL BIOLOGY 2026 AGENDA
Meeting Goals:
- Enable practical use of spatial maps for disease mechanism discovery, translational and clinical studies
- Lower barriers for community data integration and spatial map expansion
- Address new challenges and explore the next frontier for spatial biology
Themes:
- Practical use of spatial maps to generate and test hypotheses describe microenvironments of functional tissue units (3D)
- Is it representative?: How do you know to trust the most complex integration of spatial data?
- Making good time: Biology across the lifespan (4D)
- On the basis of sex: Discovering sex differences to understand health and disease
- New and emerging platforms for spatial analyses for preclinical and translational use
June 16 Tuesday 2026
| Time | Topic / Speaker |
|---|---|
| 8:00 – 8:15am | Welcome |
| 8:15 – 9:00am | Keynote – Dr. Xiaowei Zhuang: |
| Spatially resolved single-cell genomics and functional genomics. | |
| 9:00 – 9:15am | BREAK |
| 9:15 – 10:55am | Practical use of spatial maps to generate and test hypotheses describe microenvironments of functional tissue units (3D). |
| 9:15 – 9:45am | Dr. Rahul Satija: |
| Organismal-scale integration and annotation of single-cell and spatial data. | |
| 9:45 – 10:15am | Dr. Gloria Pryhuber: |
| Defining Microenvironments of Airway and Submucosal Gland Functional Tissue Units Through Multimodal Spatial Mapping. | |
| 10:15 – 10:35am | Dr. Shuoshuo Wang, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center: |
| From Surgical Specimen to Spatial Insight: A Technical Framework for Biobanking and Mapping Functional Lymphatic Microenvironments. | |
| 10:35 – 10:55am | Dr. Geremy Clair, PNNL: |
| Spatial omics technologies have revealed novel cellular and molecular changes in BPD and IPF lungs. | |
| 10:55 – 11:05am | BREAK |
| 11:05 – 11:35am | Dr. Katalin Susztak: |
| Building a Trustworthy Kidney Spatial Atlas: Cross-Platform Validation, Clinical Correlation, and Translational Readout in DKD. | |
| 11:35 – 12:05am | Dr. Sylvia K. Plevritis: |
| Mapping Metastatic Niches and Treatment Resistance with Spatial Community, Colocalization, and Spatiotemporal Modeling. | |
| 12:05 – 1:05pm | Lunch |
| 1:05 – 2:00pm | Is it representative?: How do you know to trust the most complex integration of spatial data? |
| 1:05 – 1:25pm | Eric Cramer, Oregon Health and Science University: |
| Bridging Agent-Based Simulation and Clinical Spatial Profiling with a Tumor-Immune Dynamic Landscape. |
|
| 1:25 – 1:45pm | Dr. Andreas Bueckle, Indiana University: |
| Spatial Maps as Exploration Tools: Emerging VR Platforms for 3D Tissue Microenvironments. | |
| 1:45 – 2:00pm | BREAK |
| 2:00 – 3:40pm | Making good time: Biology across the lifespan (4D) |
| 2:00 – 2:30pm | Dr. Sanjay Jain: |
| What Does Molecular Cartography Teach Us About Human Kidney Organization, Function, and Disease Mechanisms? | |
| 2:30 – 3:00pm | Dr. Rong Fan: |
| Seeing RNA Biology in Action in Human Tissues. | |
| 3:00 – 3:20pm | Dr. Abdalla Ahmed, Stanford University: |
| Temporal and Spatial Profiling of the Aging Human Intestine at Single Cell Resolution Reveals Epigenetic Regulators of Aging. | |
| 3:20 – 3:40pm | Yang Miao, Duke University: |
| Age-related cell type abundance changes, senescence marker expression gradients, and age-related spatial pattern changes in the healthy human colon. | |
| 3:40pm | Adjourn |
| 3:40 – 4:30pm | BREAK - FREE TIME |
| 4:30 – 7:00pm | Poster session at the hotel Recommended poster dimensions: 4' long by 3' tall, STANDARD POSTER size. |
| 5:00 – 6:00pm | Themes 1 and 2 |
| 6:00 – 7:00pm | Themes 3. 4, and 5 |
June 17 Wednesday 2026
| Time | Topic / Speaker |
|---|---|
| 8:00 – 9:40am | On the basis of sex: Discovering sex differences to understand health and disease |
| 8:15 – 8:45am | Dr. Hongkui Zeng: |
| Brain Cell Type and Cell State Dynamics. | |
| 8:45 – 9:15am | Dr. Noël Burtt: |
| CFDE Liver Resource | |
| 9:15 – 9:35am | Dr. Peiran Lu, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: |
| Spatially resolved, multidimensional atlas offers new insights into the molecular and spatial heterogeneity of the human heart. | |
| 9:35 – 9:55am | Dr. Diane Saunders, Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago: |
| Mapping the cellular and extracellular organization of the human ovary across the lifespan by single-cell transcriptomics and multiplex antibody-based imaging. | |
| 10:00 – 10:20am | BREAK |
| 10:20am – 12:00pm | New and emerging platforms for spatial analyses, for preclinical and translational use |
| 10:20 – 10:50am | Dr. Beth McQuiston: |
| Translating diagnostic tests to clinical care: Insights from Industry. | |
| 10:50 – 11:20am | Dr. Chris Larsen: |
| From Signal to Standard of Care: Translating Discoveries into Clinical Practice. | |
| 11:20 – 11:40am | Rosa Nguyen, University of California, Los Angeles: |
| Photonic Single-nucleus Indexing Profiling of the Genome, 3D Genome Conformation, and Epigenomes. | |
| 11:40am – 12:00pm | Dr. Lieke Michielsen, Cornell University: |
| View of spatial variation for individual cell types. | |
| 12:00 – 1:00pm | Lunch |
| 1:00 – 2:00pm | Round Table: What are the next steps? |
| 2:00 – 2:45pm | Keynote – Dr. Garry Nolan: |
| Using Large Language Models to Understand the Tumor-Immune Interface. | |
| 2:45pm | Final Words from Organizers and Adjourn |