Single cell- and spatial 'Omics revolutionize physiology

Single cell multi- 'Omics and Spatial Transcriptomics are prominent technological highlights of recent years, and both fields still witness a ceaseless firework of novel approaches for high resolution profiling of additional omics layers. As all life processes in organs and organisms are based on the functions of their fundamental building blocks, the individual cells and their interactions, these methods are of utmost worth for the study of physiology in health and disease. Recent discoveries on embryonic development, tumor immunology, the detailed cellular composition and function of complex tissues like for example the kidney or the brain, different roles of the same cell type in different organs, the oncogenic program of individual tumor entities, or the architecture of immunopathology in infected tissue are based on single cell and spatial transcriptomics experiments. In this review, we will give a broad overview of technological concepts for single cell and spatial analysis, showing both advantages and limitations, and illustrate their impact with some particularly impressive case studies.