The cellular heterogeneity of liver tissue can be deciphered as single cells (top) or whole tissue (bottom). (Top) Single-cell technologies transcriptomically categorize the sample at a single-cell level (scRNA-seq) and can be further enhanced by sorting nuclei instead of cells (snRNA-seq) or adding oligonucleotide-labeled antibodies to target surface antigens (CITE-seq). (Bottom) In spatial transcriptomics, freshly frozen tissue is attached to a chip, whose barcodes contain location information on a grid. Thus, mRNA transcripts released from the tissue after permeabilization can be traced back to its grid location, and therefore, the approximate location of the tissue. Abbreviation: CITE-seq, cellular indexing of transcriptomes and epitopes by sequencing.