Spatially resolved, highly multiplexed RNA profiling in single cells
This paper introduces MERFISH, a single-molecule imaging method that uses error-robust barcoding combined with sequential rounds of hybridization and imaging to identify many RNA species in single cells in situ. The error-correcting binary codes allow detection and misidentification correction across thousands of transcripts. The authors imaged up to ~1,000 genes in individual human cells, mapping spatial expression and revealing gene co-variation and subcellular RNA localization.