Metadata Reporting Standards
Spatial Enhanced Resolution Omics Sequencing (Stereo-seq)
Stereo-seq is a spatial transcriptomics platform that captures RNA expression across tissue sections at single-cell to subcellular resolution over a wide field of view. RNA molecules are captured in situ on a patterned chip containing spatially indexed DNA nanoballs (DNBs)—each assigned a unique Coordinate ID (CID)—enabling precise spatial mapping of transcripts from fresh-frozen tissue. The resulting data supports multi-scale analysis of tissue biology, from tissue-level organization to single-cell gene expression and subcellular transcript localization.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.35079/HBM577.XHHB.694
Published: September 3, 2026
Schema
* Required
| Attribute | Type | Description | Allowable Values |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent sample ID * | The unique identifier from HuBMAP or SenNet for the sample (such as a block, section, or suspension) used to perform the assay. For instance, in an RNAseq assay, the parent sample would be the suspension, while in imaging assays, it would be the tissue section. If the assay is derived from multiple parent samples, this field should contain a comma-separated list of identifiers. Example: HBM386.ZGKG.235, HBM672.MKPK.442 | ||
| Lab ID | A locally assigned identifier provided by the data provider for the dataset. It is used to reference an external metadata record that may be maintained independently, enabling traceability and supporting provenance tracking. Example: Visium_9OLC_A4_S1 | ||
| Preparation protocol DOI * | The DOI for the protocols.io page that details the assay or the procedures used for sample procurement and preparation. For example, in the case of an imaging assay, the protocol may start with tissue section staining and end with the generation of an OME-TIFF file. The documented protocol should also include any image processing steps involved in producing the final OME-TIFF. Example: https://dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.eq2lyno9qvx9/v1 | ||
| Dataset type * | The specific type of dataset being produced. Example: RNAseq | HiFi-Slide SNARE-seq2 COMET Visium (no probes) DESI Confocal Stereo-seq Visium (with probes) Molecular Cartography DBiT-seq Seq-Scope CosMx Transcriptomics CyCIF Light Sheet seqFISH ATACseq CosMx Proteomics Singular Genomics G4X Visium HD MERFISH 10X Multiome 4i PhenoCycler Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) Thick section Multiphoton MxIF CyTOF Olink MIBI Auto-fluorescence FACS Xenium SIMS Cell DIVE CODEX GeoMx (NGS) MUSIC Pixel-seqV2 MALDI 2D Imaging Mass Cytometry Histology Enhanced Stimulated Raman Spectroscopy (SRS) DART-FISH Resolve RNAseq LC-MS nanoSPLITS GeoMx (nCounter) RNAseq (with probes) MS Lipidomics MPLEx |
|
| Contributors path * | The name of the file containing the ORCID IDs for all contributors to this dataset. Example: ./contributors.csv | ||
| Data path * | The top-level directory containing the raw and/or processed data. For a single dataset upload, this might be represented as “.”, whereas for a data upload containing multiple datasets, this would be the directory name for the respective dataset. For example, if the data is within a directory named “TEST001-RK”, use the syntax “./TEST001-RK” for this field. If there are multiple directory levels, use the format “./TEST001-RK/Run1/Pass2”, where “Pass2” is the subdirectory where the single dataset’s data is stored. This is an internal metadata field used solely for data ingestion. Example: ./TEST001-RK | ||
| Mapped area value * | The mapped area value, which refers to the specific area covered or captured in various assays. For Visium, it is the area of spots covered by tissue within the captured area, excluding the total possible captured area. For GeoMx, it refers to the area of the AOI being captured. In HiFi, it is the summed area of the ROIs in a single flowcell lane. For CosMx and Resolve, it indicates the area of the FOV (also known as ROI) region being captured. For Xenium, it is the total area of the FOV regions (also known as ROI) being captured. For Stereo-Seq, this value represents the number of beads. Example: 42.25 | ||
| Mapped area unit * | The unit of measurement for the mapped area value. If mapping area is not specified, this field may be left blank. Example: um^2 | mm^2 um^2 |
|
| Spot size value * | For assays where spots are used to define discrete capture areas, this is the area of a spot. | ||
| Spot size unit * | The unit for spot size value. | mm^2 um^2 |
|
| Number of spots * | Number of capture spots within the mapped area. For Visium this would be the number of spots covered by tissue, while it’s the number of spots within ROIs for HiFi. | ||
| Spot spacing value * | Approximate center-to-center distance between capture spots. Synonyms: Inter-Spot distance, Spot resolution, Pit size | ||
| Spot spacing unit * | Units corresponding to inter-spot distance | um |
|
| Permeabilization time value | Permeabilization time used for this tissue section. | ||
| Permeabilization time unit | The unit for the permeabilization time. | minute |
|
| Preparation instrument vendor | The company that manufactures the instrument used to prepare the sample (e.g., for staining or other processing steps) prior to the assay. If the instrument was custom-built or developed internally, enter “In-House”. If no sample preparation occurred, enter “Not applicable”. Example: 10X Genomics | In-House Leica Biosystems Not applicable Thermo Fisher Scientific Roche Diagnostics HTX Technologies 10x Genomics Hamamatsu SunChrom |
|
| Preparation instrument model | The specific model of the instrument used for sample preparation, such as staining. Manufacturers may offer multiple models with varying features or sensitivities, which can influence how the sample is processed and how the resulting data is interpreted. If no sample preparation occurred, enter “Not applicable”. Example: Chromium X | NanoZoomer S210 Not applicable Sublimator EVOS M7000 Chromium Controller NanoZoomer S360 NanoZoomer S60 Chromium X AutoStainer XL Visium CytAssist SunCollect Sprayer M3+ Sprayer Discovery Ultra ST5020 Multistainer Chromium iX Chromium Connect M5 Sprayer TM-Sprayer |
|
| Non global files | Specifies a semicolon-separated list of non-global files that are to be included in the dataset. The file paths assume that the files are located in the “TOP/non-global/” directory. For instance, if the file is located at TOP/non-global/lab_processed/images/1-tissue-boundary.geojson, the value for this field would be “./lab_processed/images/1-tissue-boundary.geojson”. Once ingested, these files will be copied to their appropriate locations within the respective dataset directory tree. This field is intended for internal HuBMAP processing. Examples for GeoMx and PhenoCycler are provided in the File Locations documentation: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n2McSs9geA9Eli4QWQaB3c9R3wo5d5U1Xd57DWQfN5Q/edit#heading=h.1u82i4axggee Example: ./lab_processed/images/1-tissue-boundary.geojson | ||
| Metadata schema ID * | The unique string identifier for the metadata specification version, which is easily interpretable by computers for purposes of data validation and processing. Example: 22bc762a-5020-419d-b170-24253ed9e8d9 |
Definitions
| Pattern | Required? | Description |
|---|---|---|
| extras/ | ✓ | Folder for general lab-specific files related to the dataset. |
| raw/ | ✓ | This is a directory containing raw data. |
| raw/stereo_seq/ | All relevant raw files for Stereo_seq. | |
| lab_processed/ | ✓ | Experiment files that were processed by the lab generating the data. |
| lab_processed/stereo_seq/ | All relevant experiment files for Stereo_seq. |
Example
.
├── extras/
├── raw/
│ └── stereo_seq/
└── lab_processed/
└── stereo_seq/
HuBMAP Datasets
The HuBMAP Data Portal is an open platform to discover, visualize, and download standardized healthy single-cell and spatial tissue data.
View HuBMAP Datasets
Citation
Fisher SA, Hardi J, Morgan R, Nordgren E, Kant PM, Honick B, Rosario J, O'Connor MJ, Turner ML, DCWG Members, Gehlenborg N, Blood PD, Silverstein JC, Musen MA. 2026. The HuBMAP Framework for Advancing Data FAIRness. submitted. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.06.01.728946
Reuse
This standard may be reused, expanded, or referenced by external repositories. It represents version 2.0 of the metadata schema and version 2.0 of the file directory structure. If you are uploading data, the latest versions of both are available at the "Latest Versions" link below. If you are querying or using HuBMAP or SenNet metadata, a harmonized view of the metadata specification is available at the "Harmonized Version" link below.
Latest Versions Harmonized Version
Contributors
Below is the information for the individuals who contributed to the HuBMAP and SenNet metadata reporting standards.
For questions about this standard, email HuBMAP Helpdesk. You can alternatively reach out to the individuals listed below, either via the email address listed in the table or via contact information provided on their ORCID profile page.
| Name | Affiliation | Contact | ORCID |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen A Fisher | University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, USA | safisher@upenn.edu | 0000-0001-8034-7685 |
| Josef Hardi | Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA | johardi@stanford.edu | 0000-0002-2533-6681 |
| Richard Morgan | University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA | rsm66@pitt.edu | 0009-0003-1800-8545 |
| Mark A Musen | Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA | musen@stanford.edu | 0000-0003-3325-793X |
| Jonathan C Silverstein | University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA | j.c.s@pitt.edu | 0000-0002-9252-6039 |
| Erik Nordgren | University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, USA | 0000-0002-5024-0278 | |
| Peter M Kant | University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Currently - Otsuka Precision Health, Princeton, NJ, USA | 0009-0002-6510-5041 | |
| Brendan John Honick | Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA | 0000-0001-6128-9854 | |
| Martin J O’Connor | Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA | 0000-0002-2256-2421 | |
| Jean G Rosario | University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, USA | 0000-0002-6116-5058 | |
| Nils Gehlenborg | Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA | 0000-0003-0327-8297 | |
| Philip D Blood | Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA | 0000-0002-9129-1223 | |
| Kyung Jin Ahn | Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA | 0000-0002-4184-482X | |
| Christopher R Anderton | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA | 0000-0002-6170-1033 | |
| Shovik Bandyopadhyay | Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA | 0000-0003-3919-3914 | |
| Kenneth C Bedi | University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, USA | 0000-0003-3588-9324 | |
| Maigan Brusko | University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA | 0000-0002-4331-2202 | |
| Martha Campbell-Thompson | University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA | 0000-0001-6878-1235 | |
| James Carson | The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA | 0000-0001-9009-5645 | |
| Chase M Carver | Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA | 0000-0003-4002-2418 | |
| Jing Chen | University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA | 0000-0001-8008-8062 | |
| Anthony M Corbett | University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA | 0000-0001-9545-0853 | |
| Alexandra E Cuaycal | University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA | 0000-0002-9060-6326 | |
| Penny Cuda | Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA | 0009-0002-6547-2650 | |
| Dinh Diep | University of California, San Diego, CA, USA; Currently - Altos Labs, San Diego, CA, USA | 0000-0001-6057-4119 | |
| Sergii Domanskyi | The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, Farmington, CT, USA | 0000-0002-6847-6019 | |
| Sean Donahue | Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA | 0000-0002-4072-2046 | |
| Michael P Duffy | University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, USA | 0000-0001-5325-3683 | |
| Michael T Eadon | Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA | 0000-0003-3066-2876 | |
| Jean Fan | Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA | 0000-0002-0212-5451 | |
| Melissa A Farrow | Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA | 0000-0002-1602-2082 | |
| Kathleen M Fisch | University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA | 0000-0002-0117-7444 | |
| William F Flynn | The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, Farmington, CT, USA | 0000-0001-6533-0340 | |
| James M Fulcher | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA | 0000-0001-9033-3623 | |
| Soumya Ghose | GE HealthCare, Niskayuna, NY, USA | 0000-0002-2730-1482 | |
| Fiona Ginty | GE HealthCare, Niskayuna, NY, USA | 0000-0001-6638-683X | |
| Joana P Gonçalves | Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands | 0000-0001-6072-9627 | |
| Yongqun He | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA | 0000-0001-9189-9661 | |
| Po Hu | Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA | 0000-0003-2422-1652 | |
| Sanjay Jain | Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA | 0000-0003-2804-127X | |
| Thomas V Karathanos | Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA | 0000-0003-1754-3872 | |
| Madhurima Kaushal | Washington University School of Medicine | 0000-0003-2760-0586 | |
| Angela RS Kruse | Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; Currently - The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA | 0000-0001-8776-2769 | |
| Yumi Kwon | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA | 0000-0003-0523-6197 | |
| Blue B Lake | University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; Currently - Altos Labs, San Diego, CA, USA | 0000-0002-8637-9044 | |
| Roy Lardenoije | Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands | 0000-0002-9026-7870 | |
| Shin Lin | Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA | 0000-0003-0118-0413 | |
| Yiing Lin | Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA | 0000-0002-0317-7608 | |
| Scott A Lindsay | University of California, San Diego, CA, USA | 0000-0002-2929-7755 | |
| Peiran Lu | Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA | 0009-0001-5096-3046 | |
| Clayton Mathews | University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA | 0000-0002-8817-6355 | |
| Elizabeth McDonough | GE HealthCare, Niskayuna, NY, USA | 0000-0001-7524-8260 | |
| Ricardo Melo Ferreira | Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA | 0000-0003-2063-9744 | |
| Emma M Monte | Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA | 0000-0003-2566-1967 | |
| Kathleen O’Neill | University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, USA | 0000-0003-1980-6840 | |
| Minxing Pang | University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, USA | 0000-0001-5208-5972 | |
| Mana Parast | University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA | 0000-0001-5963-2246 | |
| Liming Pei | Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA | 0000-0002-1924-0333 | |
| Samuel Peters | University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA | 0000-0003-1479-8087 | |
| Ajay Pillai | National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA | 0000-0002-9789-7189 | |
| Gloria Pryhuber | University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA | 0000-0002-9185-3994 | |
| Ling Qin | University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, USA | 0000-0002-2582-0078 | |
| Presha Rajbhandari | Columbia University, NYC, NY, USA | 0000-0003-2184-7238 | |
| Matthew M Ruffalo | Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA | 0000-0003-2222-6169 | |
| Pinaki Sarder | University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA | 0000-0003-2450-5233 | |
| Diane C Saunders | Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA | 0000-0002-8849-6746 | |
| Kevin Schneider | Buck Institute, Novato, CA, USA | 0009-0001-8046-0167 | |
| Lingyan Shi | University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA | 0000-0003-1373-3206 | |
| Santhosh Sivajothi | The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, Farmington, CT, USA | 0000-0002-8854-4517 | |
| David Smith | Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA | 0000-0001-7858-3785 | |
| Jeff M Spraggins | Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA | 0000-0001-9198-5498 | |
| Valentina Stanley | University of California, San Diego, CA, USA | 0000-0002-2212-7796 | |
| Kai Tan | Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA | 0000-0002-9104-5567 | |
| Anusha Thadi | Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA | 0000-0002-1271-0398 | |
| Hua Tian | Columbia University Medical Center, NYC, NY, USA | 0000-0002-3598-0219 | |
| Morgan L Turner | Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA | 0000-0002-1512-9742 | |
| Ioannis S Vlachos | Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Boston, MA, USA | 0000-0002-8849-808X | |
| Seth Winfree | University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA; Currently - QCDx Inc, Farmington, CT, USA | ||
| Pei-Hsun Wu | Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA | 0000-0002-7371-2960 | |
| Kevin J Zemaitis | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA | 0000-0002-3524-9776 | |
| Mowei Zhou | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA; Currently - Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China | 0000-0003-3575-3224 | |
| Chenchen Zhu | Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA | 0000-0003-2165-9456 |
