Photolabile oligonucleotides with topological light gradients enable spatially resolved single-cell transcriptomics and epigenomics.

scSTAMP-seq enables high-resolution spatial transcriptomics and epigenomics in single cells with over 10,000 cells analyzed in human embryoids.

• Why it matters: Understanding how spatial organization influences cellular function is crucial for deciphering complex biological systems, yet existing methods lack precise spatial resolution in multiomic profiling.
• What they did: The team developed scSTAMP-seq, a modular approach using light-encoded barcoding with photocleavable oligonucleotides, applied to live and fixed cells to preserve spatial information during sequencing.
• The result: This method revealed how spatial arrangement and epigenetic states jointly regulate cellular programs in human embryoids, paving the way for detailed spatial multiomic studies in developmental biology.