Registration deadline: 24 May 2026 (in-person)/14 June 2026 (virtual) 

Spatial transcriptomics is becoming increasingly popular in all species and tissue types and is a powerful tool to analyse gene expression at a single cellular level.  

Traditional histology techniques focus only on the morphology of your sample, often without consideration of maintenance of high-quality RNA needed for a successful spatial transcriptomics experiment. 

This course will give you a good understanding of the different stages of histological sample preparation to optimise for spatial transcriptomics experiments. 

We will share our own experiences to enable you to prepare your own samples. Through a series of case studies, we will present a variety of sample preparation methods that span different species and tissue types. 

We welcome virtual attendees to the morning theory sessions 09:30-13:00. 

What will I learn?  

• Understand the theory of mechanisms of fixation, dehydration, embedding and sectioning, and when it is/is not appropriate to use these for your sample
• Gain hands-on experience in handling samples for spatial transcriptomics: embedding and sectioning, including differences with common platforms (in-person only)
• What a good sample looks like, and how to troubleshoot challenging samples
• Understand a variety of sample preparation methods available to you for spatial transcriptomics and how these perform more or less well for different sample types  

Who is this training for?  

Anyone in the process of planning a spatial transcriptomics experiment and wanting to learn about optimising sample preparation. If you are thinking about a grant submission and want to understand the various timings required for preparing and optimising samples, this is definitely for you. 

This training is for all roles who might be working with sample preparation for spatial transcriptomics, including but not limited to: technicians, postdoctoral researchers, research assistants, group leaders, PhD students and more

Prerequisites:    

Good laboratory practice and familiarity with common molecular biology equipment. Previous experience with histology is not required.  

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