Spatial Domain Discovery
method
spatial-omics
Definition
Spatial domain discovery refers to computational methods that identify tissue regions, niches, neighbourhoods, or domains from spatial omics data.
What It Gives
- Tissue domains with distinct molecular profiles
- Spatial neighbourhoods of cells or spots
- Candidate niches linked to tissue function or disease
- Local organization beyond cell-type abundance
Typical Examples
- CellCharter
- BANKSY
- Graph-based spatial clustering
- Neighbourhood enrichment analysis
Main Limitation
Many methods work well within a sample, platform, or tissue context, but cross-sample, cross-cancer, and cross-platform integration remains challenging.
In Papers
- Zhang et al. 2026 contrasts this method class with Spatial EcoTyper, which is designed for conserved spatial ecotype discovery across diverse samples and platforms.