Trekker™

Transform standard single-cell genomics studies by incorporating spatial transcriptomics into your research with Trekker™, an instrument-free spatial omics workflow that fits easily into standard single-cell workflows. The Trekker protocol takes just one hour upstream of standard snRNA-seq workflows. Trekker technology works by tagging each nucleus within its native tissue environment through unique spatial barcodes. These spatial barcodes are read using next-generation sequencing (NGS), allowing each nucleus to be bioinformatically positioned to its spatial coordinates. The result is a spatial map with true single-cell resolution without the use of complex instrumentation, cell-type deconvolution, or cell segmentation. 

The workflow begins by melting a frozen tissue section onto the Trekker tile, a spatially barcoded surface. Upon exposure to UV light, oligonucleotides carrying spatial barcodes are cleaved from the beads and attach to nuclei in their vicinity. Spatially tagged nuclei are fed into standard single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) workflows. Spatial barcode oligos are captured and amplified alongside cellular RNA. A custom bioinformatics pipeline is used to map the position of each nucleus based on the spatial barcodes it contains.