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INFORMATION FOR

    The Mu Lab at Yale School of Medicine

    July 02, 2025

    See how the Mu Lab is using spatial transcriptomics/scRNA-seq-based examining, AI-based prediction, and 3D-cultured organoid-based testing to tackle three major questions in prostate cancer—and help patients.

    ID
    13277
    Andrew Osborne

    Transcript

    • 00:04Lineage plasticity is a process
    • 00:06which cancer cell can change
    • 00:08their identity
    • 00:09and become someone they are
    • 00:11not before. Think about the
    • 00:12whole concept of any anti
    • 00:14cancer treatment. These kinds of
    • 00:15cell have some identity, make
    • 00:17them different from normal cells.
    • 00:19Right? So we can target
    • 00:20them by our anti cancer
    • 00:22therapies.
    • 00:26My lab, trying to answer
    • 00:28three big questions.
    • 00:29First is
    • 00:30why cancer cell are able
    • 00:32to escape the anti cancer
    • 00:33therapy we designed for them,
    • 00:34and how can we stop
    • 00:35that? And second question is
    • 00:38most of anti cancer therapy
    • 00:39only work in a small
    • 00:41proportion of patient. So we
    • 00:43want to know, can we
    • 00:44actually find a way to
    • 00:45predict which patient responds to
    • 00:47which therapy and match the
    • 00:50perfect therapy for the perfect
    • 00:51patient?
    • 00:52And third is we try
    • 00:53and develop new therapies for
    • 00:55some cancer do not respond
    • 00:57to any therapy exist right
    • 00:59now. Now. So we are
    • 01:00working very close to the
    • 01:02physician colleagues at Yale and
    • 01:04using all the cutting edge
    • 01:05technology in my lab trying
    • 01:07to solve these three big
    • 01:08questions.
    • 01:12This small rare clone has
    • 01:14the ability to change it
    • 01:15to some different cell it
    • 01:16doesn't look like. But with
    • 01:18special transatomic and single cell,
    • 01:20first we can mapping them.
    • 01:21We can know what you're
    • 01:23actually changing to a new
    • 01:24one. And with artificial intelligence,
    • 01:26which AI do the best,
    • 01:27is find a pattern. We
    • 01:29do not what your identity
    • 01:30is, but we can capture
    • 01:32the pattern you change
    • 01:34and then design three d
    • 01:35cultured organoid.
    • 01:37Organoid, you can think about
    • 01:38is like a mini pseudotumor.
    • 01:40We can generate those pseudotumor
    • 01:42from a patient tumor, which
    • 01:44means we can test a
    • 01:45specific drug. Basically, we predict
    • 01:48your next move and give
    • 01:49you the drug already waiting
    • 01:51there.
    • 01:52This platform
    • 01:53works close together.
    • 01:55Basically,
    • 01:55it's
    • 01:56examine,
    • 01:57prediction,
    • 01:59and testing
    • 02:00and will help us to
    • 02:02solve the three big questions.
    • 02:07If we can find all
    • 02:08those rare cologne for not
    • 02:11all the tumor, but every
    • 02:12different patient,
    • 02:13each of the rare cologne
    • 02:15which cause their tumor may
    • 02:16relapse in the future, and
    • 02:17then we can design therapies
    • 02:19to stop that before the
    • 02:20tumor even relapses.
    • 02:22And the second goal is
    • 02:23use this precision medicine which
    • 02:25based on AI algorithm prediction
    • 02:27and those little pseudo tumor
    • 02:29group platform.
    • 02:30We can give each patient
    • 02:32a very different treatment design
    • 02:34based on AI prediction.
    • 02:37And we'll have the most
    • 02:38effective treatment before you even
    • 02:40give the patient to help
    • 02:41our physician colleagues.
    • 02:44Right now, our lab is
    • 02:45working on prostate cancer and
    • 02:46also bladder cancer, and especially
    • 02:48because we're in the urology
    • 02:50department.
    • 02:50But you can see the
    • 02:52platform we built, the AI
    • 02:53system, the special transatomic, and
    • 02:55the pseudotumor,
    • 02:56we can use the same
    • 02:57platform to any different cancers.