Long Cai

Our laboratory pioneered the field of spatial genomics. We developed tools such as seqFISH that allows >10,000 genes to be detected in situ with single molecule resolution in tissues. We also developed MEMOIR to record molecular events into the genome of cells in collaboration with Michael Elowitz's lab. These transformative tools have allowed us to discover unexpected dynamics in stem cell biology, uncover spatial organization in the brain and embryos. We will continue to explore questions in developmental biology and neuroscience, as well as generating spatial atlas of organisms at the single cell resolution. The key to doing science is knowing what's not known. Spatial genomics gives us a tool to find those unknowns.