Two papers by Michigan State University researchers in spatial transcriptomics were recently published in Nature Communications. The technology presented has the potential to make an impact in cancer treatments, as genetic information about the environment surrounding tumors can make an impact on a patient’s immune response.

Spatial transcriptomics is a molecular biology tool that allows researchers to see which genes are active in different parts of a tissue—and where that activity occurs. Like using a map program with gene sequencing, scientists can see the location and biological activity of genes at the same time. Researchers at MSU have focused on improving the technology usage in the field in their latest studies.

The papers, “STANCE: a unified statistical model to detect cell-type-specific spatially variable genes in spatial transcriptomics” and “Rotation-invariance is essential for accurate detection of spatially variable genes in spatial transcriptomics,” were co-authored by members of MSU’s Department of Statistics and Probability. Yuehua Cui, professor, and Haohao Su, graduate student, contributed to both studies, while Yuesong Wu, graduate student, and Bin Chen, associate professor in the Department of Pharmacy and Toxicology, were co-authors for the STANCE publication.