Spatial omics

Welcome to the April edition of the Biochemist. This issue contains a number of articles on “spatial omics”. Spatial omics can be considered to be the study of biological molecules within the context of their spatial organisation within tissues or individual cells. It combines transcriptomic, genomic or proteomic data with spatial mapping at approaching genome-wide level. Understanding the precise spatial localisation of target molecules is key to understanding their function, and spatial omic approaches can enable researchers to gain critical information about the temporal and spatial localisation of genes or proteins of interest. Traditionally researchers have used techniques such as immunohistochemistry (IHC) to detect proteins, or in situ hybridisation (ISH)to detect RNA/DNA within a tissue. These became, and are still, standard techniques used across biology. In my own experience in the early 1990s, as a freshly minted post doc interested in understanding the regulation of cell type-specific gene expression in the lung, I used these techniques to localise proteins and gene expression to the bronchial epithelium of the airways. As the technology advanced, it became possible to multiplex two or more antibodies or RNA probes to detect multiple signals in the same section, and now using the latest spatial omics techniques, it is possible to expand the number of targets massively up to almost genome-wide coverage at the transcriptomic level. This moves away from the candidate target approach and into the unbiased identification and localisation of targets. A simple glance at the contents page of any of the top science journals will illustrate how the use of these techniques is revolutionising the field of molecular biosciences. As with most technologically driven areas of the molecular biosciences, spatial omics is rapidly evolving and the content within this issue clearly illustrates this.Eoghan Mulholland summarises the important roles that IHC and ISH have played in the study of markers within their native spatial context in human pathology and highlights how multiplexing techniques such as imaging mass cytometry can be used to study individual proteins in human cancer samples as a tool to identify and target specific immune cell types in tumours for therapeutic benefit. He also highlights the use of techniques that can detect nucleic acid targets (RNA or DNA) at single cell resolution and illustrates how spatial approaches have been used to reveal the complex nature of mosaics of subclones within tumours and how these have distinct gene expression patterns, stromal interactions and microenvironments. He describes how the newer spatial transcriptomic techniques are now able to approach the sensitivity of whole single-cell RNA sequencing approaches with regard to read depth. Importantly, the article outlines how the complexity of spatial omics data requires the development of advanced analysis tools and finishes by describing how spatial biology will enable a fundamental shift in how we understand and treat disease at the tissue level.To date, one of the limitations of some of the spatial sequencing approaches has been their low sensitivity. Andrew Russell provides an overview of a recently developed technique, called Slide-tags, that uses a spatially indexed mixture of beads to bar code single nuclei and that allows single nucleus spatial transcriptomics at a much higher resolution than previous methods, resulting in sequencing data at greater read depth, as well as spatial positioning information that is superior to established methods. In addition to the enhanced sensitivity and resolution of the technique, another important advantage of the method is that once the nuclei have been tagged they can be used for a number of different applications. For example, the original paper introducing the technique described multiomic measurements of open chromatin (using ATAC-Sequencing), RNA and T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing in the same cells from metastatic melanoma.In addition to these two feature articles, we also include two Beginner’s Guides. One of them describes methods for Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MSI), a spatial omics technique that provides label free mapping of molecular distributions across a wide range of sample types, including metabolites, lipids and proteins. MSI allows visualisation of complex biomolecular distribution in tissue and plays an increasingly important role in understanding tissue microenvironments in disease pathology. In addition, the technique is also used in drug development and for pharmacokinetic studies. The second Beginner’s Guide describes the biophysical technique of Differential Scanning Fluorimetry (DSF), a technique that is use to assess protein stability in vitro. DSF has an advantage over other protein stability measuring techniques in that it can be performed in high throughput and is less dependent on expensive hardware.I am also very pleased to see article detailing the winners of the Biochemical Society Awards for 2026. Every year the Biochemical Society makes a series of awards to outstanding molecular bioscientists from across the entire career range and the breadth of the Societies’ activities. Importantly, you will see how they include awards for research support, for industrial and academic collaboration, for inspiration and resilience, and for teaching excellence. This report not only details the achievements of the individual recipients but also includes their thoughts on what the awards mean to them. The awards are completely open for nominations and are judged by a committee. Having previously been chair of the Awards Committee, I can assure you that this is an enlightening, humbling and difficult process in roughly equal measures. The 2027 awards cycle will open in July, so please start thinking of your nominations.As ever, please contact us if you have any comments on the issue or if you feel that you would like to contribute to the magazine in anyway.