The IGB Computational Genomics would like to announce the Spatial Omics Initiative, to bring together researchers from different disciplines across the University of Illinois to enable breakthroughs in genomic biology by developing new ways to embed omics data in space.

Briefly, spatial omics is an approach to biology research that combines genome-scale omics data (gene transcripts, epigenetic markers, proteins, metabolites, etc.) with high-resolution spatial information to better understand molecular, cellular, and tissue-level processes. The field pertains to a wide range of areas, including biology and medicine, spatial ecology and geographic information systems, engineering and instrumentation, and machine learning and artificial intelligence. Questions in biology can motivate new directions in engineering and analytics, which in turn can inspire new biological questions. The strength and diversity of research at the University of Illinois make it uniquely positioned to make major, fundamental contributions to this fast-growing field. The purpose of this Spatial Omics Initiative is to build the cross-campus collaborations necessary to make this happen.

The Spatial Omics Initiative is organizing a monthly working group that will meet in IGB 612 from 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm on the following Mondays. Some meetings will be held jointly with the IGB Center for Artificial Intelligence and Modeling (CAIM), to develop new ideas at the intersection of biology and analytics. Lunch will be provided.

1/30/23 (joint with CAIM)
2/27/23 (joint with CAIM)
4/10/23
5/8/23

For a more detailed agenda, please join the mailing list at https://mail.igb.illinois.edu/sympa/subscribe/spatial-list, and visit https://www.igb.illinois.edu/facilities-services/spatial-omics-initiative for more information.