Fostering Academic Exchange: EXO – Beyond the Cell Featured at the 2nd ESSB Meeting
From October 14 to 17, 2025, the 2nd Meeting of the European Society for Spatial Biology (ESSB) was successfully held in Heidelberg, Germany, in collaboration with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).
With the theme “Spatial Biology: The Melting Pot,” the meeting brought together leading scientists and researchers from around the world. The discussions spanned a broad range of topics, including tumor microenvironment and cancer, spatial immunology, emerging advances in spatial biology, data analysis for spatial biology, subcellular spatial biology, and spatial pathology and its new insights into diseases. Through keynote lectures, focused discussions, data sharing sessions, and young investigator presentations, the event fostered interdisciplinary collaboration and academic exchange, while also providing opportunities for industry engagement to advance innovative technologies.
During the conference, Professor Christian M. Schürch (University Hospital and Comprehensive Cancer Center Tübingen), Vice-Chair of ESSB and Editorial Board Member of EXO – Beyond the Cell (EXO), delivered an introduction to the journal. Professor Schürch’s presentation outlined EXO’s academic positioning and future direction, offering attendees a deeper understanding of the journal’s mission and vision as an emerging platform for scientific exchange. His introduction significantly enhanced EXO’s visibility within the international academic community and created valuable opportunities for fostering global collaborations.
The 2nd ESSB Meeting Heidelberg not only showcased the latest advancements in spatial biology but also served as an important platform for academic exchange, interdisciplinary cooperation, and industry interaction, laying a solid foundation for the continued growth of spatial biology research.
We extend our sincere appreciation to Professor Christian M. Schürch for his strong support and contribution to both the conference and the promotion of EXO.
About ESSB
ESSB is a non-profit organization run by scientists dedicated to the fascinating world of spatial biology. In spatial biology, the diverse cellular landscape in tissues is studied across multiple dimensions. Spatial biology doesn’t merely focus on individual cells, but takes their spatial arrangement and interactions within complex tissues and organisms into consideration. This interdisciplinary field combines insights from medicine, biology, physics, computer science, and many other disciplines to achieve a comprehensive understanding of biological systems in health and disease.
ESSB aims at providing a platform for scientific interaction and exchange among researchers who develop and implement spatial technologies, as well as for facilitating engagement with industry partners, to shape the future of this rapidly growing field. It will organize conferences and workshops on relevant topics in the field, for example data standards, QC, benchmarking, as well as spatial biology hackathons. It also plans to organize courses tailored for spatial biology and specific events to promote the next generation of spatial biologists.