Senior Research Officer , Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research 

The bone marrow niche is a complex entity that regulates normal and malignant haematopoiesis, yet its spatial architecture, molecular landscape and cellular composition remain poorly defined. To elucidate how clonal malignant blood cells shape their surrounding microenvironment to drive disease progression, we applied spatial transcriptomics technologies on unique reporter mouse model and curated clinical specimens. We generated world first multi-modal spatial atlas of mouse and human bone marrow and provided evidence that malignant plasma cell clones alter their local microenvironment in a clone-specific manner. Our results redefine the role of tumour microenvironment in driving blood cancer aetiology and evolution and will guide the design of targeted therapies.