On April 29, the 2024 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Conference held a special press conference on major achievements in Beijing, releasing a number of major original achievements, blockbuster innovation policies, and the latest research reports to the world, and continuing to build a "wind vane" for global cutting-edge technology and future industries. BGI's spatiotemporal omics technology Stereo-seq was selected and released as one of the major scientific and technological achievements "for people's life and health".
With the theme of "Innovation: Building a Better World", this year's Zhongguancun Forum attracted world-renowned experts, scholars, entrepreneurs, and representatives of academic organizations to gather online and offline to exchange ideas and discuss innovation.
Stereo-seq, a spatiotemporal omics technology independently developed by BGI, is an in-situ panoramic spatial omics technology that can study the localization and function of cells and molecules in tissues from the dimensions of time and space, improving the resolution of understanding life space to the subcellular level of 500 nanometers, with a field of view of up to 13 cm x 13 cm, and is known as the "ultra-wide-angle 10 billion pixel life camera".
At present, Stereo-seq technology has helped domestic and foreign scientific research teams achieve a series of breakthrough results. In May 2022, the official website of Cell Publishing House released the world's first batch of life space-time maps in the form of special topics. Among them, the spatiotemporal map of mouse embryonic development was published in Cell in the form of a cover article. This is the first time that human beings have analyzed the process of gene and cell changes in the process of life development with ultra-high precision from the dimensions of time and space.
In September of the same year, researchers used Stereo-seq technology to draw the world's first high-resolution spatiotemporal map of axolotl brain regeneration, which was published in Science in the form of a cover article, which is of key significance for the treatment of human nervous system damage repair or degenerative diseases and the application of regenerative medicine. In addition, the technology has also made important progress in the research of melanoma and other diseases, helping to develop early detection and treatment measures for melanoma.
In July 2023, based on Stereo-seq and other technologies, researchers drew the first spatial distribution map of single cells in the primate cerebral cortex, setting a new milestone in the development of brain science and providing a new foundation for the study of brain diseases.
"With the heart of benefiting the world, let spatiotemporal omics technology benefit everyone. Xu Xun, executive director of BGI Group and president of BGI Life Science Research Institute, said at the press conference. As another milestone after microscopy and sequencing technology, spatiotemporal omics technology is expected to bring about the third scientific and technological revolution in the field of life sciences, and become the underlying tool to re-understand organ structure, life development, species evolution and define diseases. At present, more than 300 top scientists from 37 countries and regions have joined the International Spatiotemporal Omics Alliance to jointly promote the application of spatiotemporal omics technology and work together to decode the "Book of Life".
In the future, BGI will work with more scientists to promote the in-depth exploration of spatiotemporal omics technology in the fields of organs, diseases, development, and evolution, jointly promote the solution of human questions, and bring more major scientific breakthroughs in the field of life sciences.
*Source: 2024 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Conference