Spatial omics: applications and utility in profiling the tumor microenvironment

Spatial transcriptomics has emerged as a transformative technology in biomedical research, offering unprecedented insights into gene and protein expression within their native tissue context. Unlike conventional bulk or single-cell sequencing approaches, spatial omics has the advantage of preserving the spatial structure of tissues, allowing researchers to directly map molecular information onto histological structures. This review provides an overview of the current state of spatial omics technologies, highlighting their application in cancer research. Spatial omics has enabled detailed characterization of the tumor microenvironment (TME), revealing spatial heterogeneity, immune cell infiltration patterns, and complex mechanisms of tumor progression and therapy resistance across various cancer types. The review covers future directions, including artificial intelligence–driven analytics, improved standardization, and cost reduction to accelerate clinical translation. Ultimately, spatial omics is poised to play a central role in precision oncology, enabling a deeper understanding of tumor biology and informing more effective individualized treatment strategies.