Table 1.

Summary of spatial transcriptomics profiling technologies

Modality	Method	Reference no.	Pixel resolution	Number of unique genes	Capture area
Imaging	RNAscope	77	≤1 μm	12	≥1 cm2
	MERFISH	78	≤1 μm	10,000	1 cm2
	seqFISH	79	≤1 μm	10,000	1 cm2
	CARTANA	80	≤1 μm	600	1 cm2
Massively parallel sequencing	10x Genomics Visium	81	55 μm	2,500	0.44 cm2
	Slide-seqV2	62	10 μm	2,000	7 mm2
	DBiT-seq	63	10 μm	2,000	1 mm2
			25 μm	—	6.25 mm2
			50 μm	3,700	25 mm2
	Seq-Scope	64	1 μm	500	2.2–5.5 mm × 125 mm

Imaging technologies such as RNAscope, MERFISH, seqFISH, and CARTANA have large capture areas and excellent resolution while requiring the use of a predefined probe set limited to a smaller number of unique genes. Massively parallel sequencing approaches have smaller capture areas and sample from the entire transcriptome, although they capture a fraction of unique genes with reduced sensitivity compared with imaging methods. DBiT-seq, deterministic barcoding in tissue for spatial omics sequencing; MERFISH, multiplexed error-robust fluorescence in situ hybridization; seqFISH, sequential barcode fluorescence in situ hybridization; Seq-Scope, Sequence-Scope.