Mapping Biological Complexity with Integrated Spatial Multiomics

Oliver Braubach, PhD

Oliver Braubach, PhD, is a biologist and imaging specialist whose work bridges cellular and systems biology, advanced microscopy, and spatial proteomics. He currently serves as director of research and development at Bruker Spatial Biology, where he leads the scientific team responsible for development of the CellScape precise spatial phenotyping platform and related multiplexed antibody assays. His group focuses on enabling comprehensive, cellular-resolution biomarker mapping for applications in oncology, neuroscience, and translational research. Oliver completed his PhD in physiology and neuroscience at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. He has held multiple postdoctoral positions and industry positions. To date, Oliver authored or co-authored over 45 peer-reviewed publications and multiple patents spanning neuroscience, imaging, cancer biology, and spatial proteomics. Oliver’s current focus is on expanding the boundaries of quantitative, spatially resolved spatial biology—developing systems that integrate optics, immunofluorescence, and advanced bioinformatics to uncover cellular context in complex tissues. His long-term goal is to democratize high-plex imaging for both discovery research and clinical translation.

Joe Beechem, PhD

Joe Beechem, PhD, joined NanoString in 2012 as the senior vice president of research and development and is now Bruker Spatial Biology chief scientific officer. He is an inventor and full commercial developer of the GeoMx® Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP), CosMx Spatial Molecular Imager (SMI), and AtoMx Spatial Informatics Platform. The GeoMx platform enables spatial whole transcriptomic profiling of RNA (up to 22000-plex) and proteins (up to 1200-plex) using UV-light-directed NGS-readout of standard biobanked FFPE tissue sections (Merritt et al., Nature Biotechnology vol. 38, May 2020). CosMx platform allows single-cell and subcellular spatial resolution of RNAs (up to 19000-plex) and proteins (up to 76-plex) (He et al., Nature Biotechnology vol. 40, Dec 2022). Beechem leads a multidisciplinary research team at Bruker Spatial Biology based in Seattle, WA, where he and his colleagues develop innovative technology platforms and assays based on the company’s nucleic-acid based optical and photo-active barcodes for multiplexed quantification of biomolecules. Joe’s R&D team now focus 100% on technology development for unlimited-plex multiomic spatial biology applications.

Beechem is extensively cited in the scientific literature (over 17000 citations, h-index = 69) from over 550 peer-reviewed publications in multiple diverse fields: spatial biology, cancer immunology, infectious disease, medicine, genomics, proteomics, biomathematics, physics, chemistry, and spectroscopy (https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=xAAquLgAAAAJ). He has lectured at nearly every major medical center and pharma-biotech company (worldwide). Joe received a doctorate in biology from Johns Hopkins University (1986), post-doc in physics (UIUC, 1986-1989) and started his career (11 years, 1989-2000) as a tenured faculty member at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He also had a decade-long career at Life Technologies as chief scientific officer building next-generation sequencers (2000-2012).