Between the 9th and 13th September 2024, researchers from Oxford and beyond were welcomed to Jesus College, Oxford for a five-day spatial transcriptomics data camp.
The week began with a day of presentations from leading experts in spatial transcriptomics, exploring the latest methods, translational applications and the integration of spatial transcriptomics and AI in clinical settings. Speakers included Professor Henrik Heiland (Friedrich-Alexander Universität, Erlangen-Nürnberg), Dr. Tong Li (Wellcome Sanger Institute), Dr. Oliver McCallion (University of Oxford) and Dr. Nicola Cahill (10x Genomics).
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This was followed by a two-day workshop focused on spatial data analysis. In these sessions, participants delved into both sequencing-based and high-resolution in situ technologies. The week culminated with a two-day spatial hackathon, where participants applied their newly acquired skills in a dynamic and collaborative environment.
The camp hosted 25 participants from diverse backgrounds, including PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive, with one attendee describing it as “the best academic event I have been to in years”, expressing that they “learned so much” and that the event was “exactly what I needed.”
Next year, the Oxford Omics Data Camp will be led by Professor Hashem Koohy. The event will focus on harnessing the power of emerging AI and machine learning techniques. These approaches will be applied to data generated by cutting-edge single-cell technologies to provide deeper insights into the underlying principles of antigen-specific T-cell immunity.
An image created by a data camp participant using simulated spatial transcriptomics data.
More information is available on the event website here.
The camp was organised and led by Dr. Agne Antanaviciute alongside a skilled team from the MRC WIMM Centre for Computational Biology (CCB), including Karolina Kunnapuu, Kexin Xu, Poorva Jain, Dr. Kevin Rue-Albrecht, Dr. Rosana Ottakandathil Babu, Dr. Chloe Hyun-Jung Lee and Professor David Sims.
The event was supported by the MRC WIMM IT Committee and CCB Management Group, with funding from the Medical Research Council and additional sponsorship from 10x Genomics.
The code used to generate the image above can be found here: https://github.com/kevinrue/spatialist