Integration of complementary, high throughput single-cell omics with spatial resolution.

The human body is composed of millions of cells. Large efforts aiming at describing every cell in the human body have recently started with the aim to revolutionize healthcare. Understanding health and diseases requires methods that examine individual cells in their natural microenvironment, assess their spatial distribution in the tissue, both bi- and tri-dimensionally, and that capture and integrate multiple layers of information including genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics and proteomics data. A KULeuven “single cell omics (SCO) institute that brings together scientists from various disciplines (i.e. cancer, brain and infectious diseases, …) is being created to advance such technologies in a coordinated fashion. In this context, with this application, we propose to build a new platform integrating highthrouput spatial single-cell omics, which will complement existing methodologies (and those under development) and widen the spectrum of possible applications. This new platform will be designed to increasing the speed, throughput and automation in spatial single-cell profiling. This project will further enhance the strategic position of KULeuven as a leader in single-cell profiling in Flanders and beyond