STOC launches with more than 80 scientists joining globally, focused on 
obtaining the greatest scientific benefits from spatially resolved 
transcriptomics technology; first studies use BGI-Research's Stereo-seq to 
produce spatiotemporal cellular maps of mice, Drosophila, zebrafish, and 
Arabidopsis

Scientists from 16 countries today announced the establishment of the 
SpatioTemporal Omics Consortium (STOC), an open scientific community focused on 
using spatially resolved cellular resolution omics technology to map and 
understand life. Their first studies resulted in state-of-the-art panoramic 
spatial atlases of life, published in Cell and Developmental Cell on May 4.

Over 80 scientists from Harvard University, Oxford University, MIT, University 
of Cambridge, the Karolinska Institutet, the University of Western Australia, 
the Genome Institute of Singapore, BGI-Research, among others, are 
collaborating as part of STOC. Members of the research group who produced the 
panoramic atlases used a new enabling technology Stereo-seq, developed by 
BGI-Research, to produce the most insightful spatiotemporal cellular maps to 
date of mice, small fruit flies (Drosophila), zebrafish, and the Arabidopsis 
plant, making a breakthrough in resolution and panoramic field of view and 
enabling analysis of the distribution and placement of molecules and cells in 
situ, and over time.

Identifying the characteristics of specific cells within a tissue has 
significant applications for understanding physiology, how organisms develop, 
and which cells are causes or indicators of disease, potentially leading to 
future gains in human disease research. These lay an important foundation for 
STOC's research initiatives, which aim to create diverse sets of spatiotemporal 
atlases to broaden our knowledge of disease treatment, organ structures, 
development and aging, and to improve our understanding of biological evolution.

"In the last few years, there has been a lot of progress of mapping the genome 
and transcriptome in single cells. But this has been without the context of the 
spatial aspect of neighbourhoods of cells, ecosystem of cells, and therefore 
there is a whole layer of information that has been missing, which I think will 
now become accessible. That will have a major impact on both basic and 
translational research," says Berthold Göttgens, Director of the Wellcome-MRC 
Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, and a Member of STOC.

The transformational aspects of spatiotemporal omics for scientific research 
are captured in the goals of the STOC, as Weibin Liu, STOC Organizing Committee 
Member, explains.

"The panoramic atlases published late yesterday are the first steps toward the 
Consortium's vision of revolutionizing humanity's understanding of mind and 
body, youth and old age, health and illness, the origin and future of the human 
race, and the rest of the living world, for that matter," says Liu. "They lay 
the groundwork for multiple atlases the Consortium could complete together, and 
they validate approaches for creating other spatiotemporal atlases."

"Because of the magnitude of such endeavors, they require nothing short of a 
concerted global effort, across multiple disciplines from science to 
engineering to mathematics, and across diverse stakeholders from medicine to 
industry to funders. Together with our 80+ members so far, we will work to 
chart the way forward, to build new tools and competencies, to share resources 
and results, to map and solve the unknown," he adds

The SpatioTemporal Omics Consortium (STOC) is an open, collaborative research 
initiative established to unite, organize, advance and share global scientific 
efforts in spatiotemporal omics to solve the mysteries of life. More 
information about STOC can be found at www.sto-consortium.org.

SOURCE:  STOC