A flexible and low-cost spatially resolved transcriptomics strategy making molecular tissue profiling a widely available solution

Spatially-resolved transcriptomics methodologies are revolutionizing our understanding of complex tissues, but their elevated costs represent still a bottle-neck for their democratization. In this work we present a low-cost strategy for manufacturing molecularly double-barcoded DNA arrays, enabling large-scale spatially-resolved transcriptomics studies. We applied this technique to spatially resolve gene expression in several human brain organoids, including the reconstruction of a 3-dimensional view from multiple consecutive sections, revealing gene expression divergencies throughout the tissue.

空间转录组学（spatially-resolved transcriptomics）方法正革新人类对复杂组织的认知，但其高昂的成本仍是制约其普及推广的核心瓶颈。本研究提出了一种低成本的分子双条形码DNA阵列（double-barcoded DNA arrays）制备策略，可支撑大规模空间转录组学研究。我们将该技术应用于多个人脑类器官（brain organoids）的基因表达空间解析，包括通过多张连续切片重构三维视图，进而揭示了整个组织内的基因表达差异。