Collaboration will allow high-throughput, multiplexed spatial profiling of solid tumors, paving the way for precision oncology
CAMBRIDGE, MA – February 3, 2026 – LifeCanvas Technologies announces a collaboration with the Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology (LSP) at Harvard Medical School, led by Professor Peter Sorger, to investigate solid tumor biology in 3D. The joint effort combines the LSP’s world-leading translational cancer biology expertise with LifeCanvas’ pioneering spatial biology tools to uncover how solid tumors survive and proliferate. This work, funded by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center’s Bits to Bytes program, will open new avenues for overcoming treatment resistance.
Solid tumors are notoriously difficult to treat, particularly when metastatic. Studies based on multiplexed, spatially-resolved data are beginning to show why: solid tumors act as complex ecosystems, comprising heterogeneous structures and cell types that dynamically interact with their environments. To stay alive and invade new tissues, tumor cells must suppress the immune system’s ability to recognize and kill abnormal cells. Reactivating immune cells is the key to effective immunotherapy.
Most of our knowledge about human tumors and their relationship to immune cells comes from examining thin specimens. In contrast, LifeCanvas’ tissue processing and DALISPIM light sheet imaging technologies enable an innovative 3D approach to studying millimeter-thick samples. Using this approach, LSP and LifeCanvas scientists are precisely mapping spatial relationships between human tumors and nerves, blood vessels, and immune cells at unprecedented scale and resolution. The team will release the resulting data without restriction so it can be used by academic and industry scientists to advance cancer research and image-focused AI technologies.
“This collaboration with LifeCanvas Technologies is a key component of the spatial biology program at the LSP, which was established a decade ago with support from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center,” says Sorger. “As new 3D data becomes available, our team hopes to engage local biopharmaceutical companies developing next-generation immunotherapies and vaccines.”
Through efforts like these, LifeCanvas is hastening academic adoption of breakthrough technologies and accelerating life-changing discoveries.
About LifeCanvas Technologies
LifeCanvas is a Cambridge-based biotech company changing the way we see biology by equipping researchers with next-generation tools for 3D molecular mapping. Through our scientist-built, scientist-backed technologies for intact tissue processing, imaging, and analysis, we are expediting basic and translational research across biomedicine. Get the latest news on the LifeCanvas website and LinkedIn.
Media contact
Silvin Golumbeanu
sgol@lifecanvastech.com