Beyond the Lab and Into the Hospital: An Outlook on the Clinical Utility of Spatial Omics Technologies

Spatial omics technologies, including highly multiplexed histologic protein assays, nucleic acid abundance and/or sequence mapping, and spatial epigenetics assays, offer powerful tools for interrogating the complex biology of human tissues. These technologies have been broadly applied in basic and translational research, which presages deployment in clinical settings as well. In this article, we discuss spatial omics technologies with an emphasis on retrieval of disease-related information in single samples, with potential clinical applications in specialties such as oncology and immunology, and in the development of personalized treatment. Capable of localizing detailed molecular information within histologic structures, spatial omics technologies provide both cell-intrinsic information and microenvironmental interaction context. This will allow more precise diagnostic and prognostic classifications and more accurate predictions about treatment responses to be made. While technical and financial challenges to widespread deployment in clinical laboratories remain, spatial omics technologies are expected to dramatically expand actionable information obtained by human tissue sampling for pathologic analysis.