CityUHK researchers advance spatial omics to routine clinical use

HONG KONG , Sept. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, spatial omics has become a powerful tool, enabling researchers to see not only what molecules are present in a tissue, but also where they are located and how they are organised across cells, tissue structures and local microenvironments. This spatial context has significantly deepened our understanding of cancer, neurobiology and immunology. Yet as the field keeps advancing, an important question remains: How many of these powerful technologies are truly ready for routine clinical use?

The most informative technologies are often also the most demanding, requiring expensive instruments, reliance on sequencing, complicated tissue preparation, lengthy workflows and substantial computational resources. While these requirements are manageable in well-resourced research settings, they can become major obstacles in real-world pathology laboratories, where time-sensitive biopsies, clinical practicality and broad patient access are critical considerations.