Spatial Transcriptomics
Spatial Transcriptomics
Haibo Liu
MERFISH
Spatial transcriptomics
• Spatial transcriptomics is a rapidly growing field that promises to
comprehensively characterize tissue organization and architecture at the single-
cell or subcellular resolution.
(ISC)
(ISH)
(ISS)
Experimental approaches
ISS
ISC: 10x Visium method highlights
10x Visium ST procedures
ISC outcome
ISH data:
image correction, stitching,
registration, segmentation,
followed by locating and decoding
individual spots that usually
correspond to a single transcript.
Cell type identification and localization
In situ hybridization (ISH):
• High-plex RNA imaging
• Spatial transcriptomics data at single-cell resolution
• Directly used to identify cell types in an analogous
manner to scRNA-seq
• Can be enhanced by integration with scRNA-seq data
(featureCounts)
Understanding how cells
communicate with the tissue
environment
Evolution of ST data analysis tools
Highligh: Integrative exploratory tools for
spatial data analysis and visualization
Seurat tutorial:
https://satijalab.org/seurat/articles/spatial_vignette.html
https://github.com/drieslab/awesome-spatial-data-analysis
References
• Asp M, Bergenstråhle J, Lundeberg J. Spatially Resolved Transcriptomes-Next Generation Tools for Tissue
Exploration. Bioessays. 2020 Oct;42(10):e1900221. doi: 10.1002/bies.201900221.
• Piñeiro AJ, Houser AE, Ji AL. Research Techniques Made Simple: Spatial Transcriptomics. J Invest Dermatol.
2022 Apr;142(4):993-1001.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.jid.2021.12.014.
• Zhang L, Chen D, Song D, Liu X, Zhang Y, Xu X, Wang X. Clinical and translational values of spatial
transcriptomics. Signal Transduct Target Ther. 2022 Apr 1;7(1):111. doi: 10.1038/s41392-022-00960-w.
• Dries R, Chen J, Del Rossi N, Khan MM, Sistig A, Yuan GC. Advances in spatial transcriptomic data analysis.
Genome Res. 2021 Oct;31(10):1706-1718. doi: 10.1101/gr.275224.121.
• Liu B, Li Y, Zhang L. Analysis and Visualization of Spatial Transcriptomic Data. Front Genet. 2022 Jan
27;12:785290. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2021.785290.
• Lewis SM, Asselin-Labat ML, Nguyen Q, Berthelet J, Tan X, Wimmer VC, Merino D, Rogers KL, Naik SH. Spatial
omics and multiplexed imaging to explore cancer biology. Nat Methods. 2021 Sep;18(9):997-1012. doi:
10.1038/s41592-021-01203-6.
• Longo SK, Guo MG, Ji AL, Khavari PA. Integrating single-cell and spatial transcriptomics to elucidate
intercellular tissue dynamics. Nat Rev Genet. 2021 Oct;22(10):627-644. doi: 10.1038/s41576-021-00370-8.