title: Spatial transcriptomics of fetal skin
design: Spatial transcriptomics of fetal skin
library_construction_protocol: Fetal tissue samples were collected at the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust under NHS REC 96/085. Fetal facial and abdominal skin samples from a single donor at 10 post conception weeks (PCW) were embedded in optimal cutting temperature (OCT) medium and flash-frozen in isopentane cooled with dry-ice. Sections were chosen based on prior morphology (H&E) and RNA quality checks. 10µm cryosections from the OCT blocks were cut onto 10x Genomics Visium slides. Sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E), imaged and processed according to the 10x Genomics Visium protocol, using a permeabilization time of 12 min found through a prior tissue optimization step. After transcript capture, dual-indexed libraries were prepared as per manufacturer's protocol.