Recently, led by Chinese scientists, 6 countries and 32 scientific research teams have jointly completed the world’s first batch of life space-time maps. For the first time, scientists have mapped the temporal and spatial maps of embryonic development or organs of four model organisms: mice, zebrafish, fruit flies and Arabidopsis, and published them online in the journal Cell and its sub journal developmental cell. The research has passed the ethical review and strictly followed the corresponding laws, regulations and ethical norms.

According to reports, researchers use stereo SEQ, a spatio-temporal omics technology called “ultra wide-angle 10 billion pixel life camera”, to “capture” the genetic information and spatial location of each cell in the tissue at the same time, and the resolution of the chip used can reach 500 nm. Researchers “took” multiple “photos” every day from 9.5 to 16.5 days after the formation of mouse embryonic organs, and obtained 53 “photos” in 8 periods, forming a spatio-temporal map of embryonic development and recording the cell evolution process of organ development and formation in mouse embryos. The world’s first systematic and clear cross temporal spatial gene expression atlas of mouse organs has been constructed, which provides important data reference for mammalian development research and guidance for birth defects related research.

According to Chen Ao, the first author of the paper “cell” and the chief scientist of spatio-temporal omics of Shenzhen Huada Academy of life sciences, spatio-temporal omics technology enables us to observe the distribution of molecules and cells and the interaction between cells in normal and disease states at cell or even subcellular resolution, and truly realize the function of understanding from the perspective of high-precision structure, This will greatly promote our comprehensive understanding of the complexity of life and human diseases.

In order to promote the wide application of spatio-temporal omics in various fields of life science, institutions such as the Institute of life sciences of Huada have launched the spatio-temporal omics alliance, which is composed of more than 80 scientists from 16 countries such as Harvard University, Cambridge University and Oxford University. The results of this special topic are the first batch of heavy achievements produced by the alliance. According to Xu Xun, the co corresponding author of the series of papers and President of Shenzhen Huada Institute of life sciences, “through the spatio-temporal omics alliance, we will work together with scientists in various fields to promote the all-round development of organ atlas, disease pathology, ontogeny and life evolution in the future”.