The human skin is a tightly-organized ecosystem composed of a dense network of thick structural appendices surrounding naturally-resident and recruited immune cells. Routine clinical assays, such as conventional immunohistochemistry, fail to resolve the regional heterogeneity and immune topology of inflammatory skin conditions, which can lead to false interpretation. Here we introduce MANTIS (Multiplexed Annotated Tissue Imaging System), a flexible analytical system specifically-designed for spatially-resolved immune-phenotyping of the skin in thick experimental samples or large clinical cohorts. Combining multiplexed 3-D imaging, machine learning and unsupervised bioinformatics, MANTIS automatically projects a representative digital immune landscape, while enabling interactive gating of anatomical regions and concomitant single-cell data quantification of biomarkers. We leverage these properties to analyze skin biopsies from healthy and pathological conditions.

ESDR370 - MANTIS: an integrated digital process for 3-D deconstruction of human skin immune landscape

The scientific meeting of the European Society for Dermatological Research (ESDR) is held yearly, usually in September. With an international attendance of more than 1000 skin scientists from around the globe, the four-day event includes short oral presentations from peer-reviewed abstracts, keynote lectures from international experts, sponsored symposia, satellite programs, educational events as well as an important focus on posters, networking and building collaborations amongst scientists. For more information about this year’s meeting visit our website.