STOmics technology:BGI Stereomics Stereo-Seq

Data type:Spatial transcriptomics

Sample scope:Multispecies

Summary:Bladder cancer is the most common cancer in the urinary system in China, with approximately 82,300 new cases diagnosed each year. It is also the tenth most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide, with 573,278 new cases and 212,536 deaths annually. At the time of initial diagnosis, about 70% of patients are classified as having non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC, Tis, Ta, T1), while the remaining 30% have muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC, T2-4). The main treatment for MIBC is radical cystectomy, which is a painful surgical procedure, and there is a lack of effective treatment options for advanced-stage patients. Furthermore, NMIBC rarely progresses to MIBC (10-15%), indicating that NMIBC and MIBC are not different stages of the same disease, but rather have significant differences in terms of genetic background, treatment approaches, and patient prognosis. In the past, research on MIBC has been primarily limited to Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) techniques, using mixed samples and lacking high-resolution spatial information. As a result, only a preliminary genetic profile of MIBC has been outlined, and the core driving factors for MIBC invasion into the muscle layer have not been fully elucidated. Therefore, the development of high spatiotemporal-resolution MIBC maps is of paramount importance for treatment decision-making, drug development, molecular-guided surgery, and real-time monitoring, as it holds transformative implications for clinical management of MIBC. This study aims to construct a spatial omics map of MIBC using high-resolution spatial transcriptomics and single-cell nuclear multi-omics techniques. It aims to decipher the specific driving genes and related cellular molecular mechanisms underlying the muscle invasion of bladder cancer, providing more potential targets for the treatment of MIBC.

Contributor(s):Di Wang, Guixiang Xie, Zongzheng Yang, Jingwen Guo, Feng Wen et al.

Submitter:郭靖文(Jingwen Guo),BGI

Release date:2026-08-19

Updated:2026-08-19