Delivering Spatial Insights to Bring Therapeutics to Patients Faster
"(RNAscope™) is enabling us to push what we can do and help bring medicines to people faster."
- Brad Spencer-Dene, PhD, Associate Director, Subject Matter Expert, Next Generation Histology, GSK
Dr Brad Spencer-Dene is an Associate Director within the Non-Clinical Histology team at GSK’s R&D department. As a subject matter expert in next-generation histology, his work centers on delivering critical spatial insights - such as biodistribution of RNAs in tissues and cells - to support therapeutic development across diverse disease areas
RNAscope™ - A Trusted Partner for Pharmaceutical Research
Dr Spencer-Dene’s team is routinely challenged to provide spatial localization of proteins, RNAs and oligonucleotides across a wide variety of tissues and cells. To meet these demands, they rely on the comprehensive suite of RNAscope technologies, which provide the high sensitivity, versatility, and throughput required in a fast-paced pharmaceutical R&D environment. The integration of automation platforms such as Leica, Ventana, and COMET™ further enables the team to scale their analyses efficiently.
“Within the company now, we're certainly using pretty much the whole range, everything from RNAscope and BaseScope™ and Hiplex™ all the way through to miRNAscope™. We're generally using an automated high throughput approach. So typically, we're using things on the Leica platforms, but also now Ventana, and trying to implement (….) the COMET™”.
Many Spatial Questions. One Clear Answer with RNAscope
For over a decade, Dr Spencer-Dene, has relied on RNAscope technologies, drawn to their single-cell sensitivity and subcellular resolution. The ability to visualize and quantify a broad spectrum of RNAs—from mRNAs to antisense oligonucleotides—as well as protein biomarkers on the same section, across any tissue or organism, has been a cornerstone of his work throughout his career.
“I've used RNAscope (…) for probably best part of 10 or 12 years. For me, it was a fantastic innovation. (… The) 8,000-fold amplification (….) really enables you to boost the sensitivity and selectivity of (…the assay). And then the ability to look at smaller or more degraded RNAs with things like BaseScope and miRNAscope, again, has really enhanced that repertoire and armoury of what you can apply to your samples.”
Maximum Data from Limited Samples
High-plex spatial platforms like COMET now allow Dr Spencer-Dene’s team to simultaneous detect dozens of targets on the same tissue section. This capability is particularly valuable when working with scarce materials – such as punch biopsies or organoids – ensuring maximum data yield while preserving precious samples and driving more comprehensive translational insights.
“To be able to detect dozens, if not more, targets at the same time on the same tissue with (…) the COMET, that's really an innovation. (...) you can (….) address those (questions) with much more reduced samples. (…) So that's something that's really enabling,”
Advanced Spatial Insights to Accelerate Drug Discovery
The RNAscope technology is helping GSK bridge classical histology with advanced spatial biology, allowing Dr Spencer-Dene’s team to generate highly sensitive and multiplexed insights from limited tissue samples. These capabilities are helping accelerate drug discovery and development by enabling deeper mechanistic insights into disease biology and therapeutic response.