{ "title": "\"Jump in, engage, and enjoy the ride!\"", "modified_at": "2026-05-21 08:00:02", "published_at": "2026-05-21 08:00:00", "url": "https://blog.vib.be/jump-in-engage-and-enjoy-the-ride", "short_url": "http://prez.ly/sKDd", "culture": "en", "language": "EN", "subtitle": "A conversation with expert Evelien Van Hamme on what it takes to understand the spatial dimension of life sciences", "slug": "jump-in-engage-and-enjoy-the-ride", "body": "

Spatial omics is a rapidly growing field that enables researchers to study spatial patterns of gene and protein expression within tissues. By revealing how cells interact in their native environment, these technologies help map disease progression, immune infiltration, and treatment responses.

The field of spatial omics takes advances in various subfields of molecular biology - gene activity, protein flexibility, metabolic adaptability - and adds the crucial aspect of location to untangle the molecular symphony of life, health, and disease.

As the second edition of VIB's Spatial Omics conference approaches, we spoke with Evelien Van Hamme, who leads the Spatial Catalyst team at VIB and is an organizing committee member of the conference.

\n \n
\n \n
\n \n \n
\n
\n\n
Evelien Van Hamme
\n \n

Hi, Evelien. Before we start, could you tell me something about your work?

Within the VIB Spatial Catalyst, we offer wet lab and data analysis services in spatial technologies. To keep our portfolio up to date in this fast-evolving field and aligned with the needs of the researchers at VIB, we test and compare new methods and design data analysis solutions that keep pace with the platform developments. In other words, what we do is quite varied and exposes me to a lot of different domains, which I really enjoy.

About the conference: Which speakers or sessions are you personally most excited about?

I’m most looking forward to the talks by Fei Chen and Serge Saxonov, as they represent two complementary forces driving the spatial biology field forward.

Fei Chen is a true academic pioneer in spatial transcriptomics, and given my background in bioimaging, I’m a big fan of his work on expansion microscopy.

Serge Saxonov, on the other hand, has been instrumental in translating these academic spatial concepts into robust, scalable platforms that have transformed everyday research.

Especially now, with the development of the revolutionary new platform ‘Atera’, his vision of where spatial biology is heading feels particularly exciting.

\n \n
\n \n
\n \n \n
\n
\n\n
\n \n

One of the conference’s main themes is multimodal spatial omics. The benefits of integrating different approaches are clear, but what are the main challenges?

There are actually two main challenges: one at the level of the sample preparation and a second, equally important one at the level of data integration.

In unimodal applications, the samples are processed to allow optimal detection of a specific target (such as RNA or proteins). In multimodal applications, we often see that there are conflicting sample preparation requirements when we want to optimize the detection of more than one target type. Finding the sweet spot is not only a hard job, but also an expensive one.

After generating the data, the analysis is the next hurdle to take. The challenge lies in registering and integrating big datasets often acquired at different resolutions.

What do you think will be the next great leap forward for spatial omics?

I think most progress will come from how we analyse and interpret the data. AI and advanced computational methods will play a key role in making sense of highly complex spatial datasets, enabling integrative analyses across modalities, scales, and samples, and helping us translate spatial data into biological understanding. But what I hope is that there will be a drop in pricing (which hopefully results from the development of more high-throughput systems), that can lead to broader application of the technology.

As you said, with many research fields that have a computational component, it’s hard to ignore AI. How have you experienced the influence of AI in spatial omics in your own work?

We mainly feel an impact on the efficiency of our software developers since OpenAI Codex is available. This is an AI-driven coding assistant that allows us to generate solutions at unprecedented speed.

If you could give your younger self one piece of advice before entering this field, what would it be?

Jump in, engage, and enjoy the ride! It has been a privilege to step in from the beginning and to witness how fast tech is evolving, and even the wildest expectations are being met.

And finally, what’s a book that you would recommend to everyone?

It may not be a book for everyone, but it’s my all-time favorite: Non ti muovere (Ga niet weg / Don’t Move) by Margaret Mazzantini. I’m drawn to its emotional complexity — so different from, and perhaps even a counterbalance to, the scientific complexity of our day-to-day work.

Thank you, Evelien!

\n
\"Gunnar
\n
\n Gunnar De Winter\n Science Communications Expert, VIB\n \n
\n

 

", "header": { "large": "https://cdn.uc.assets.prezly.com/6099b61e-130d-4c48-b55e-5052455423b3/-/preview/1200x1200/-/format/auto/", "release": "https://cdn.uc.assets.prezly.com/6099b61e-130d-4c48-b55e-5052455423b3/-/preview/1200x1200/-/format/auto/" }, "images": [ { "caption": "Evelien Van Hamme", "original": "https://cdn.uc.assets.prezly.com/b577af5e-26dc-4696-b309-77100708cc22/", "medium": "https://cdn.uc.assets.prezly.com/b577af5e-26dc-4696-b309-77100708cc22/-/preview/500x500/-/format/auto/", "small": "https://cdn.uc.assets.prezly.com/b577af5e-26dc-4696-b309-77100708cc22/-/preview/200x200/-/format/auto/", "thumbnail": "https://cdn.uc.assets.prezly.com/b577af5e-26dc-4696-b309-77100708cc22/-/preview/100x100/-/format/auto/", "square": "https://cdn.uc.assets.prezly.com/b577af5e-26dc-4696-b309-77100708cc22/-/scale_crop/200x200/center/-/format/auto/", "squaresmall": "https://cdn.uc.assets.prezly.com/b577af5e-26dc-4696-b309-77100708cc22/-/scale_crop/58x58/center/-/format/auto/" }, { "caption": "", "original": "https://cdn.uc.assets.prezly.com/afeedf3e-1920-4ce0-8098-8cd867a176ba/", "medium": "https://cdn.uc.assets.prezly.com/afeedf3e-1920-4ce0-8098-8cd867a176ba/-/preview/500x500/-/format/auto/", "small": "https://cdn.uc.assets.prezly.com/afeedf3e-1920-4ce0-8098-8cd867a176ba/-/preview/200x200/-/format/auto/", "thumbnail": "https://cdn.uc.assets.prezly.com/afeedf3e-1920-4ce0-8098-8cd867a176ba/-/preview/100x100/-/format/auto/", "square": "https://cdn.uc.assets.prezly.com/afeedf3e-1920-4ce0-8098-8cd867a176ba/-/scale_crop/200x200/center/-/format/auto/", "squaresmall": "https://cdn.uc.assets.prezly.com/afeedf3e-1920-4ce0-8098-8cd867a176ba/-/scale_crop/58x58/center/-/format/auto/" } ], "contacts": [ { "name": "Gunnar De Winter", "company": "VIB", "description": "Science Communications Expert", "email": "gunnar.dewinter@vib.be", "website": null, "address": null, "telephone": null, "mobile": null, "twitter": null, "facebook": null } ], "author": { "first_name": "Gunnar", "last_name": "De Winter" }, "format_version": 5 }