The DNA-based global positioning system--a theoretical framework for large-scale spatial genomics

We present GPS-seq, a theoretical framework that enables massively scalable, optics-free spatial transcriptomics. GPS-seq combines data from high-throughput sequencing with manifold learning to obtain the spatial transcriptomic landscape of a given tissue section without optical microscopy. In this framework, similar to technologies like Slide-seq and 10X Visium, tissue samples are stamped on a surface of randomly-distributed DNA-barcoded spots (or beads). The transcriptomic sequences of proximal cells are fused to DNA barcodes, enabling the recovery of a transcriptomic pixel image by high-throughput sequencing. The barcode spots serve as "anchors" which also capture spatially diffused "satellite" barcodes, and therefore allow computational reconstruction of spot positions without optical sequencing or depositing barcodes to pre-specified positions. In theory, it could generate 100 mm x 100 mm spatial transcriptomic images with 10-20 m resolution by localizing 108 DNA-barcoded pixels with a single Illumina NovaSeq run. The general framework of GPS-seq is also compatible with standard single-cell (or single-nucleus) capture methods, and any modality of single-cell genomics, such as sci-ATAC-seq, could be transformed into spatial genomics in this strategy. We envision that GPS-seq will lead to breakthrough discoveries in diverse areas of biology by enabling organ-scale imaging of multiple genomic statuses at single-cell resolution for the first time.