stAI: a deep learning-based model for missing gene imputation and cell-type annotation of spatial transcriptomics.

Spatial transcriptomics technology has revolutionized our understanding of cellular systems by capturing RNA transcript levels in their original spatial context. Single-cell spatial transcriptomics (scST) offers single-cell resolution expression level and precise spatial information of RNA transcripts, while it has a limited capacity for simultaneously detecting a wide range of RNA transcripts, hindering its broader applications. Characterizing the whole transcriptome level and comprehensively annotating cell types represent two significant challenges in scST applications.