The Sunshine Coast is at the forefront of medical science, with the establishment of a new research hub spearheading advances in the treatment of conditions such as cancer, chronic disease and immune disorders.
Based at the Sunshine Coast Health Institute (SCHI) , the Hub for Advanced Spatial Biology Analytics (HASBA) is a partnership between researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) and Griffith University, combining world-class clinical, molecular, and computational expertise.
"People have been using factors like infrastructure, terrain and population density to predict and map things like flood risk and crime for years now. Spatial biology is doing the same thing for the body."
Dr Lochlan Fennell is a computational cancer biologist at UniSC and SCHI.
Dr Lochlan Fennell, a computational cancer biologist at UniSC and SCHI, explained that spatial biology works by mapping where cells and molecules are located in relation to one another within a specific part of the body - and how they communicate.
"People have been using factors like infrastructure, terrain and population density to predict and map things like flood risk and crime for years now. Spatial biology is doing the same thing for the body," he said.
"In the liver for example, we know cancer has around a 50 percent recurrence rate even after all the cancerous tissue has been removed.
We're hoping that by mapping the chemical communication between the apparently healthy liver remaining cells in that area, we can understand both why that is and how we can improve treatments accordingly."
Associate Professor Nicholas West, from Griffith's Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics, said spatial biology techniques have transformed our understanding of disease processes.
"It's already revolutionised our treatment of things like melanoma, which used to be a death sentence," Associate Professor West said.
"Spatial biology presents new opportunities for the development of targeted therapies to improve patient outcomes, however, the complexity and enormity of this new data modality pose significant challenges."
"Spatial technologies could shed new light on our understanding of the complex relationship between tumours and the immune system, and why patients respond so differently to immunotherapies."
While headquartered at SCHI, HASBA's functions span multiple institutions.
Tissue samples are processed at Griffith University's state-of-the-art lab facilities, before undergoing expert data analysis by researchers both there, and at UniSC's Centre of Bioinnovation and School of Health .
"The sheer volume of data is as enormous as it is complex. If you have samples from 10 patients, each of those samples could have 400,000 cells with 25,000 genes in each cell," Dr Fennell said.
"These are all relevant data points and that's before you even look at the spatial aspect central to all this - i.e. how do those gene expressions change if cell x is next to cell y."
Tissue samples are processed by researchers at Griffith University, UniSC’s Centre of Bioinnovation and School of Health.
While there is already strong demand for its services Australia-wide, HASBA will also provide access to cutting-edge analytics to local industry and clinical partners.
Sunshine Coast University Hospital consultant hepatologist, Professor James O'Beirne, said he was excited by the possibilities presented by HASBA.
"Spatial technologies could shed new light on our understanding of the complex relationship between tumours and the immune system, and why patients respond so differently to immunotherapies," he said.
