The future of measuring cancer

Guest Olivier Gevaert is an expert in multi-modal biomedical data modeling and recently developed new methods in the new science of “spatial transcriptomics” that is able to predict how cancer cells present spatially and will behave in the future.
Tumors are not monolithic, he says, but made up of various cell types. Spatial transcriptomics measures cells in the undisturbed organization of the tumor itself and enables a more detailed study of tumors. This new technology can be used to determine what type of cells are present spatially and how each cell influences neighboring cells. It paints a picture of tumor heterogeneity, Gevaert tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.