VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers are leading an international study to advance our understanding of the immunomodulatory nature of human tissues, providing breakthrough insights into how fibroblasts function as core regulators of structural immunity in the oral cavity.
Cover story for the first issue of Cell Press Blue, Kevin Matthew Byrd, DDS, a member of Massey’s Cancer Biology Research Program and assistant professor of oral and craniofacial molecular biology in the VCU School of Dentistry, and Jinze Liu, PhD, a Massey research member and professor in the VCU School of Public Health’s Department of Biostatistics, show how the findings lay the foundation for targeted modulation. Evaluation of fibroblast activity in fibrosis, cancer, and autoimmunity.
Bird and Liu describe how fibroblasts, traditionally considered structural support cells, also play important regulatory roles that may be exploited to improve health outcomes such as cancer. Targeting shared networks of interstitial immune communication across other barrier organs in health and chronic disease may enable novel therapeutic strategies.
We think this is actually a very important feature for the rest of your life. According to some studies, by 2030, approximately 30-40% of all human deaths will be related to fibrosis. ”
Kevin Matthew Byrd, DDS, Ph.D., member of the Cancer Biology Research Program at Massey University
The data included in this project is a first-of-its-kind AI-driven atlas that integrates single-cell and dual-platform spatial proteotranscriptomics, enabling researchers to examine associations between chronic inflammatory diseases, autoimmune diseases, and multiple and multiple cancers. Understand whether there are unique opportunities to target cancer.
The publication also introduces AstroSuite, an AI-enabled toolkit that provides an interoperable computational framework for integrated single-cell and spatial analysis. AstroSuite powers the Atlas and enables scalable and reproducible spatial biology across tissue and disease contexts. AstroSuite brings together several bioinformatics tools, including TACIT, which Bird and Liu debuted at Nature Communications last year.
“We started with this single-cell sequencing approach, but in parallel we also adopted a spatial multi-omics sequencing approach,” Bird said. “AstroSuite has become an integral part of our technology stack, allowing us to map within individual clusters in a way that is not possible with just one technology.”
AstroSuite and related technologies form the backbone of the startup Bird and Liu spun out of VCU last year.
VCU, in collaboration with Queen Mary University of London, is serving as the central coordinating site for this international, multicenter study, layering the research with additional tissue samples from partners at the University of North Carolina, Duke University, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Mildred Schell Early Cancer Research Center, University Hospital Wurzburg, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Cambridge, and the University of London. Groningen.
For Bird, international cooperation is a source of pride. “These researchers and universities wanted to participate in this study because they believe in what we are trying to discover and want to take advantage of the atlas that we are making available to the scientific community. We hope this study will accelerate discovery.”
“We want to leverage the best of multiple worlds, different disciplines, tools, and technologies that are part of these labs, and hopefully advance science faster. We want to see progress, but we know it won’t just happen in one lab.”
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Reference magazines:
Mattuck, B.F.et al. (2026). An integrated single-cell and spatial proteotranscriptome atlas of immune regulation by fibroblasts in the adult oral cavity. Cell Press Blue. DOI: 10.1016/j.cpblue.2026.100007. https://www.cell.com/cell-press-blue/fulltext/S3051-3839(26)00005-8
