Despite considerable progress in recent years, pathological analysis of tissues and organs often still relies on old-fashioned microscopic techniques. Similarly, genomic and transcriptomic analysis is commonly applied to bulk tissue samples. To address the limitations of these approaches, Zhao et al. and van Ineveld et al. have developed methods for incorporating both cellular location and molecular information into the analysis of samples from healthy organs and tumors. By adopting a Bayesian statistical approach, the former identified cellular clustering in various carcinomas, and, by using multispectral image analysis, the latter revealed tumor-specific cell populations in pediatric Wilms’ tumors. Such resolution will improve our understanding of the biology of multiple tissue types and the functions of cells in their biological contexts.
Nat. Biotechnol. 10.1038/s41587-021-00935-2, 10.1038/s41587-021-00926-3 (2021).
