Spatial biology: a landscape illuminated

Welcome to Spatial Biology: A Landscape Illuminated!

We are happy to inaugurate this Lunaphore blog, a place to share spatial biology knowledge, tips and tricks, and many other educational resources and discover the latest technology developments or exciting research topics.

Why is spatial biology important?

Spatial biology is the new frontier of life sciences. Profiling patients and disease biomarkers are crucial for understanding key aspects of cell biology and human diseases, such as cancer and infectious diseases like COVID-19. Spatial biology assays aim to generate tissue maps that provide information on what is happening at a molecular level in its original context. The goal of these maps is to help researchers understand the interplay between immune cells and diseases, such as how the immune system recognizes the disease, or how the disease heterogeneity is manifested at the cellular, tissular or individual level of patients. All of these pieces of information can shed some light on why some patients respond better to certain treatments or what processes and molecules are of clinical relevance and can therefore be targeted by pharmaceutical companies to develop their therapies. Yet, the architecture and interaction of cells within their spatial environment remain poorly explored on the scale of whole tissues and organisms.

Recognized by Nature as Method of the Year 2020, spatial biology is a powerful tool for extracting large amounts of information about cells in their morphological context. With the arrival of AI capabilities to process these large data sets, spatial biology is becoming the next technological revolution to improve our understanding of human diseases and develop targeted therapies. However, high complexity and technical barriers still prevent its wide adoption.