Visualization and analysis of gene expression in tissue sections by spatial transcriptomics

Patrik L. Stahl, Fredrik Salmen, Sanja Vickovic, Anna Lundmark, Jose Fernandez Navarro, Jens Magnusson, Stefania Giacomello, Michaela Asp, Jakub O. Westholm, Mikael Huss, Annellie Mollbrink, Sten Linnarsson, Simone Codeluppi, Ake Borg, Fredrik Ponten, Paul Igor Costea, Peter Sahlen, Jan Mulder, Olaf Bergmann, Joakim Lundeberg, Jonas Frisen

This landmark study introduced spatial transcriptomics, a method that enables visualization and quantitative analysis of the transcriptome with spatial resolution in individual tissue sections. By placing tissue sections on arrayed reverse transcription primers with unique positional barcodes, the method captures both global gene expression patterns and the spatial organization of the tissue microenvironment.