SCSAP SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT

Itay Tirosh, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Dept. of Molecular Cell Biology
Weizmann Institute of Science

 

Abstract

Single cell analysis of tumors has enabled the characterization of diverse cancer cell states that are associated with metastasis, drug resistance, proliferation and other cancer phenotypes. For example, we uncovered cancer cellular states that recur across most patients with glioblastoma (GBM) or head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and have important implications. However, these cellular states and their functions are highly dependent on the entire tumor ecosystem. To understand the organization of cell states we apply spatial transcriptomics and spatial proteomics to human tumors and develop computational approaches to analyze these datasets. In this talk I will describe our recent spatial studies in the two contexts that we focus on – glioblastoma and head and neck cancer.

Short Bio

Itay Tirosh obtained his PhD in computational biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science. From 2012 to 2017 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Regev and Golub labs at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where he pioneered the application of single cell RNA sequencing to human tumors. Since 2017 he has been a PI at the Weizmann Institute of Science. The Tirosh lab is applying single cell and spatial technologies to clinical tumor samples, primarily in glioma and head and neck cancer, and combines that with extensive computational analysis.

 

Publications of Interest:

Interactions between cancer cells and immune cells drive transitions to mesenchymal-like states in glioblastoma.

Hara T, Chanoch-Myers R, Mathewson ND, Myskiw C, Atta L, Bussema L, Eichhorn SW, Greenwald AC, Kinker GS, Rodman C, Gonzalez Castro LN, Wakimoto H, Rozenblatt-Rosen O, Zhuang X, Fan J, Hunter T, Verma IM, Wucherpfennig KW, Regev A, Suvà ML, Tirosh I.Cancer Cell. 2025 May 27:S1535-6108(25)00216-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2025.05.007. Online ahead of print.PMID: 40436018 No abstract available.

Deciphering the longitudinal trajectories of glioblastoma ecosystems by integrative single-cell genomics.

Spitzer A, Johnson KC, Nomura M, Garofano L, Nehar-Belaid D, Darnell NG, Greenwald AC, Bussema L, Oh YT, Varn FS, D’Angelo F, Gritsch S, Anderson KJ, Migliozzi S, Gonzalez Castro LN, Chowdhury T, Robine N, Reeves C, Park JB, Lipsa A, Hertel F, Golebiewska A, Niclou SP, Nusrat L, Kellet S, Das S, Moon HE, Paek SH, Bielle F, Laurenge A, Di Stefano AL, Mathon B, Picca A, Sanson M, Tanaka S, Saito N, Ashley DM, Keir ST, Ligon KL, Huse JT, Yung WKA, Lasorella A, Iavarone A, Verhaak RGW, Tirosh I, Suvà ML.Nat Genet. 2025 May;57(5):1168-1178. doi: 10.1038/s41588-025-02168-4. Epub 2025 May 9.PMID: 40346362 Free PMC article.

The multilayered transcriptional architecture of glioblastoma ecosystems.

Nomura M, Spitzer A, Johnson KC, Garofano L, Nehar-Belaid D, Galili Darnell N, Greenwald AC, Bussema L, Oh YT, Varn FS, D’Angelo F, Gritsch S, Anderson KJ, Migliozzi S, Gonzalez Castro LN, ChowdhFury T, Robine N, Reeves C, Park JB, Lipsa A, Hertel F, Golebiewska A, Niclou SP, Nusrat L, Kellet S, Das S, Moon HE, Paek SH, Bielle F, Laurenge A, Di Stefano AL, Mathon B, Picca A, Sanson M, Tanaka S, Saito N, Ashley DM, Keir ST, Ligon KL, Huse JT, Yung WKA, Lasorella A, Verhaak RGW, Iavarone A, Suvà ML, Tirosh I.Nat Genet. 2025 May;57(5):1155-1167. doi: 10.1038/s41588-025-02167-5. Epub 2025 May 9.PMID: 40346361 Free PMC article.
 

A single-cell atlas of Schwannoma across genetic backgrounds and anatomic locations.

Gonzalez Castro LN, Gavish A, Bussema L, Mount CW, Neftel C, Nomura M, Chiocca EA, Bi WL, Arnaout O, Barker FG 2nd, Brown JM, Jordan JT, Batchelor TT, Stemmer-Rachamimov A, Plotkin SR, Tirosh I, Suvà ML.Genome Med. 2025 Apr 11;17(1):37. doi: 10.1186/s13073-025-01462-4.PMID: 40217315 Free PMC article.
Monette A, Aguilar-Mahecha A, Altinmakas E, Angelos MG, Assad N, Batist G, Bommareddy PK, Bonilla DL, Borchers CH, Church SE, Ciliberto G, Cogdill AP, Fattore L, Hacohen N, Haris M, Lacasse V, Lie WR, Mehta A, Ruella M, Sater S, Spatz A, Taouli B, Tarhoni I, Gonzalez-Kozlova E, Tirosh I, Wang X, Gnjatic S.Clin Cancer Res. 2025 Apr 8. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-24-3791. Online ahead of print.PMID: 40197626

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