Austin Lowery, a third-year PhD student at Augusta University’s Immunology Center of Georgia, has been recognized for his work in spatial biology. Lowery presented his research method for analyzing spatial protein data at the Society of Leukocyte Biology 2025 meeting, where he received the Presidential Scholar Award.
Lowery is part of the Biochemistry and Cancer Biology program and works under the guidance of Yangfang “Peipei” Zhu, PhD, and Austin Chiang, PhD. He was one of four graduate student finalists selected to present at the conference.
“Honestly, I was kind of in shock for a little bit because it was the first award I’d received at an internationally recognized conference or society. It was exciting, but it was also hard to believe at the same time because I thought, ‘Wow, my work paid off,’” Lowery said. “I was honestly just happy to be there, so the fact I won was an added bonus because all the other candidates were doing such vastly different work than I was doing, and I wasn’t even sure if the crowd would appreciate my work.”
His abstract, titled “scSpatial ProtECT: A Streamlined Workflow for Single-Cell Spatial Proteomic Analysis,” details a new method that uses single-cell analysis tools in a novel way to identify neutrophils and other cell types within tumor environments. This approach addresses some of the technological challenges faced in spatial biology analysis and aims to improve accuracy in cell identification.
A key issue addressed by Lowery’s method is difficulty in cell-typing due to misleading marker expression. His research focuses on neutrophils’ roles in oral cancer—a field where much remains unknown about how these immune cells contribute to disease progression or suppression.
Neutrophils have been found to play both supportive and suppressive roles in cancer development. As new populations of these cells are discovered, understanding their diverse functions becomes more complex. Lowery’s work seeks to clarify how different neutrophil populations influence oral cancer outcomes.
“Identifying these populations may allow us to unveil populations that correlate with disease stage, tumor burden and therapy potential. My research is the first small step,” Lowery stated.
He attended the conference with hopes of learning from peers studying neutrophils but ended up receiving top honors for his own contributions.
“I’m incredibly proud of Austin for receiving this prestigious award – an extraordinary achievement for a third-year graduate student,” Zhu said. “His curiosity, perseverance and creativity have driven this challenging and innovative project forward, and this recognition not only celebrates his remarkable accomplishments so far but also points to his tremendous potential to shape the future of the field.”
