As gene and cell therapies advance toward clinical application, the questions researchers must answer are becoming increasingly precise. It is no longer sufficient to demonstrate that a therapeutic reached the bloodstream or produced a systemic effect — regulators, developers, and clinicians want to know exactly where in the tissue a vector integrated, which cell types were transduced, whether an engineered RNA is present at the intended site, and how endogenous gene expression changed in response. Bio-Techne Spatial is bringing answers to these questions to ASGCT 2026.
Bio-Techne Spatial at ASGCT 2026
Dates: May 11–15, 2026
Location: Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center, Hall C + B2 | Boston, MA
Booth: #857
The American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy Annual Meeting is the premier scientific forum for the gene and cell therapy field. At ASGCT 2026, Bio-Techne Spatial will be showcasing how RNAscope™ and COMET™ spatial technologies are enabling researchers to generate clear, spatially resolved evidence at the tissue level — evidence that supports regulatory submissions, de-risks therapeutic development decisions, and provides mechanistic insight that bulk and flow-based methods simply cannot deliver.
Beyond qPCR: The Case for Spatial Resolution in Therapeutic Validation
Quantitative PCR remains a widely used tool for assessing gene expression and vector biodistribution in gene therapy research. It is sensitive, high-throughput, and well-validated. But it has a fundamental limitation: it destroys the tissue architecture that holds critical contextual information.
When you homogenize a tissue sample for qPCR, you lose the ability to determine which specific cells contain the therapeutic RNA, whether the vector has reached the intended cell type or diffused into off-target populations, and how the surrounding tissue microenvironment has responded. You get a population-level average that may conceal the most important biological events occurring at the single-cell level.
Spatial multiomics, powered by technologies like RNAscope™ for RNA detection and COMET™ for protein multiplexing, preserves the tissue section intact and generates data that is simultaneously molecular and anatomical. Researchers can visualize where a transgene is expressed, quantify its signal at single-molecule resolution, co-localize it with cell type markers, and compare its distribution across tissue regions — all within the same tissue section.
Core Capabilities for Gene & Cell Therapy Research
Bio-Techne Spatial’s toolkit addresses the most pressing analytical needs in therapeutic development:
- Single-molecule RNA detection: RNAscope™ technology detects individual RNA molecules in tissue sections with high specificity, enabling the visualization of low-abundance transcripts including therapeutic RNAs, viral vector genomes, and antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) and siRNA constructs.
- AAV vector and transgene tracking: Researchers can directly visualize AAV capsid distribution and transgene expression within tissue, mapping both the spatial extent of transduction and the cell types that have taken up and expressed the therapeutic payload.
- Biodistribution and tropism mapping: By combining RNA detection with cell type markers, teams can characterize the cellular tropism of their vectors — determining not just which tissues were reached, but which specific cell populations within those tissues were transduced.
- Engineered vs. endogenous sequence discrimination: RNAscope™ probes can be designed to distinguish engineered therapeutic sequences from endogenous homologs, a critical capability when the therapeutic target shares significant sequence identity with native transcripts.
- Cell therapy visualization: CAR-T cells and other engineered cell therapies can be tracked directly in tissue using RNA and protein markers, enabling spatially resolved assessment of trafficking, persistence, and tumor infiltration.
- Safety and off-target evaluation: Spatially resolved data allows researchers to assess off-target transduction or unintended gene expression changes in surrounding normal tissue — providing the kind of evidence that supports regulatory-quality safety packages.
Featured Activities at ASGCT 2026
Seminar: RNAscope™ Profiling of AI-Designed AAV Capsids for Targeted Gene Delivery in NHPs
Date & Time: Thursday, May 14th, 10:15–10:45 AM
Presenter: Barbara Diaz-Rohrer, PhD — Senior Scientist, Dyno Therapeutics
The intersection of AI-driven capsid engineering and spatial biology is one of the most exciting developments in AAV gene therapy. In this seminar, Barbara Diaz-Rohrer from Dyno Therapeutics will present data on how RNAscope™ was used to profile the tissue distribution and cellular tropism of computationally designed AAV capsids in non-human primates — an essential validation step for novel vectors before advancement into clinical development. Attendees working on next-generation delivery vehicles will find this session particularly relevant to their own programs.
Signals & Sips: The RNAscope™ Social Hour
Date & Time: Tuesday, May 12, 6:30 PM
Location: Trillium Fort Point, 50 Thomson Place, Boston, MA
Bio-Techne Spatial invites ASGCT attendees to an evening of networking in a relaxed setting. The Signals & Sips social hour is designed to bring together researchers, scientists, and industry professionals for informal conversations about science, spatial biology applications, and the challenges of advancing therapeutic programs. Attendance is open to all ASGCT 2026 participants — pre-registration is encouraged.
Poster Presentations
Bio-Techne Spatial scientists will be presenting original research across three poster sessions during the meeting:
- Visualize Tissue Biodistribution of Small RNAs and Oligotherapeutics with Target RNA and Proteins
Abstract ID: 1124 | May 12, 2026
Renzo Adilardi, PhD — Senior Scientist, R&D
This presentation addresses the growing need for spatial methods to validate the tissue distribution of oligonucleotide therapeutics including ASOs and siRNA constructs, combining RNA detection with protein co-localization to build a comprehensive picture of biodistribution and target engagement. - Novel Spatial Assays for In Situ Evaluation of RNAi Therapeutic Efficacy by Visualizing ASO-RNA and siRNA-Ago2 Proximity
Abstract ID: 2121 | May 13, 2026
Yifan (Frank) Wang, PhD — Senior Scientist, R&D
This work introduces spatial proximity assays designed to visualize the functional interaction between therapeutic RNA constructs and their cellular machinery targets — a novel approach to confirming mechanism of action directly in tissue rather than inferring it from downstream readouts. - Demonstrating the Limit of Detection of the RNAscope™ Assay for Rare Event Analysis
Abstract ID: 3218 | May 14, 2026
Masroor Qadri, PhD — Scientific Lead
Detection sensitivity is a central concern for applications involving low-copy viral sequences, rare therapeutic RNA molecules, or sparse cellular populations. This presentation characterizes the analytical limits of the RNAscope™ platform in the context of rare event detection, providing the technical benchmarks that researchers need to design experiments with confidence.
Connecting Spatial Biology to Regulatory Strategy
One of the most significant emerging applications of spatial multiomics in gene therapy is its role in supporting regulatory submissions. As agencies including the FDA and EMA have articulated expectations for comprehensive characterization of gene therapy biodistribution and safety profiles, spatially resolved tissue-level evidence is becoming increasingly important in IND and BLA packages.
RNAscope™ and COMET™ data provide the kind of visual, quantitative, and anatomically contextualized evidence that translates well into regulatory documents — moving beyond summary statistics toward mechanistically interpretable datasets that demonstrate a thorough understanding of how a therapeutic behaves in vivo.
For teams at any stage of preclinical development, ASGCT 2026 is an opportunity to explore how spatial biology can be integrated into their validation strategy — and Bio-Techne Spatial’s team at Booth #857 will be available throughout the conference to discuss specific applications and workflows.