Identifying spatially variable genes by projecting to morphologically relevant curves

Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center 

Spatial transcriptomics enables high-resolution measurement of gene expression while preserving the spatial layout of a tissue. A key question is how to identify genes that vary across space in ways that align with the underlying tissue structure. Standard approaches often use the raw two-dimensional coordinates of the measurements, but these can miss patterns when the biology is organized along effectively one-dimensional structures, such as layers or gradients.