Methods & Measurement

A First Look at How Our Genes Act Differently Across the Body

A new open-access resource called the Spatial GWAS Atlas offers the first large-scale look at how genetic traits appear in precise locations within real tissues. Published in Nucleic Acids Research, the project integrates thousands of genome-wide association studies with spatial transcriptomics, allowing scientists to see not only which genes influence a trait, but where in the body those effects emerge. The atlas spans multiple tissues, species, and platforms, giving researchers a powerful way to study complex diseases in their native biological context.