Kidney Week 2025 Annual Meeting-Seeing Is Believing: Advancing Tissue Imaging Technologies for Transformative Diagnostics

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The session “Seeing is Believing: Advanced Tissue Imaging Techniques for Transformative Diagnosis” highlighted emerging spatial technologies to improve kidney disease research and diagnostics.<br /><br />Dr. Nicole Endlich described structured illumination microscopy (SIM) super-resolution imaging (~100 nm) as a practical alternative to electron microscopy for assessing podocyte foot processes. Her group developed an automated workflow (PAMP) on standard FFPE sections using slit diaphragm markers (e.g., nephrin/podocin) to quantify filtration slit density (FSD) across many glomeruli, improving reproducibility and representativeness. FSD distinguished disease patterns (e.g., minimal change vs primary/secondary FSGS), tracked therapeutic response (including in Alport syndrome trials), translated into clinical pathology workflows, and extended to organoids and zebrafish. She also presented Claudin-5 as a potential early biomarker of foot process effacement.<br /><br />Dr. Jeff Spraggins presented multimodal “spatial biology” centered on MALDI imaging mass spectrometry (label-free molecular imaging of hundreds–thousands of metabolites/lipids/glycans at ~5–10 µm pixels). Using autofluorescence- and immunofluorescence-driven segmentation plus interpretable machine learning (SHAP), his team derived robust molecular “barcodes” for nephron structures and glomerular cell types, and showed disease-associated shifts in podocyte sphingomyelin profiles in hypertension and type 2 diabetes.<br /><br />Dr. Megan Baker used imaging mass cytometry (IMC; ~1 µm resolution, ~35-plex metal-tag antibodies) plus spatial transcriptomics to study acute interstitial nephritis (AIN) in >100 biopsies. She identified VCAM1+ maladaptive proximal tubule states enriched in AIN, microenvironmental immune neighborhoods, tubular C3–C3AR1 signaling linked to macrophage recruitment, and CXCL9–CXCR3 T-cell interaction loops amplified in TLS-like aggregates; NAMPT emerged as a key metabolic-inflammatory niche signal.<br /><br />Dr. Pierre Esnault reviewed spatial transcriptomics platforms (sequencing- and imaging-based, including Visium HD and Xenium/CosMx), argued for morphology-first analysis to guide biological interpretation, and discussed AI methods to translate histology into molecular maps or integrate morphology with gene expression for improved clustering and potential prognostication.

Asset Subtitle

Moderator(s): Joseph Gaut, James Pullman

Presentation(s):

Leveraging Superresolution Microscopy for Discovery of Glomerular Disease Mechanisms and Diagnosis - Nicole Endlich
Practical Applications and Discoveries Derived from Imaging Mass Spectroscopy Applied to the Kidneys - Jeffrey Spraggins
Delineation of Tubulointerstitial Pathologies Using Imaging Mass Cytometry - Megan Baker
Integration of Histomorphometry and Spatial Transcriptomics - Pierre Isnard

Meta Tag

Date 11/6/2025

Pathway 1 Pathology

Pathway 2 Kidney Biology and Physiology

Session ID 507343

Keywords

kidney disease spatial biology

advanced tissue imaging

structured illumination microscopy (SIM)

super-resolution podocyte imaging

podocyte foot process effacement

PAMP automated workflow

filtration slit density (FSD)

nephrin podocin slit diaphragm markers

focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS)

Alport syndrome therapeutic monitoring

Claudin-5 biomarker

MALDI imaging mass spectrometry

molecular barcodes nephron segmentation

imaging mass cytometry (IMC) acute interstitial nephritis

spatial transcriptomics Visium HD Xenium CosMx