Analysis of multicellular anatomical structures from spatial omics data using sosta

Abstract

Spatial omics technologies enable high-resolution, large-scale quantification of molecular features while preserving the spatial context within tissues. Existing analysis methods largely focus on spatial arrangements of single cells, whereas biological function often emerges from multicellular arrangements. Here, we introduce structure-based analysis of spatial omics data, which focuses on the direct analysis of multicellular, anatomical structures. We illustrate this type of analysis using two publicly available datasets and provide sosta, an open-source Bioconductor package for broad community use.