Spatial omics: Navigating to the golden era of cancer research

Abstract

The idea that tumour microenvironment (TME) is organised in a spatial manner will not surprise many cancer biologists; however, systematically capturing spatial architecture of TME is still not possible until recent decade. The past five years have witnessed a boom in the research of high‐throughput spatial techniques and algorithms to delineate TME at an unprecedented level. Here, we review the technological progress of spatial omics and how advanced computation methods boost multi‐modal spatial data analysis. Then, we discussed the potential clinical translations of spatial omics research in precision oncology, and proposed a transfer of spatial ecological principles to cancer biology in spatial data interpretation. So far, spatial omics is placing us in the golden age of spatial cancer research. Further development and application of spatial omics may lead to a comprehensive decoding of the TME ecosystem and bring the current spatiotemporal molecular medical research into an entirely new paradigm.

Abstract

1. Spatial omics is transforming our understanding of the cancer ecosystem at the systemic level.

2. The integration of spatial omics and single‐cell omics can fundamentally improve our understanding of tumourigenesis and cancer microenvironment.

3. Generating the spatial atlas of human cancers across multiple omics and timescales will potentially pioneer the revolution of spatiotemporal molecular medicine.