The ability to turn genes on or off is fundamental to the diversity we see in cells, in individuals, and even in terms of health and disease. This process, known as gene transcription, involves converting the information stored in our DNA into a "carbon copy" called RNA.
I saw a poster on this at Boston Bacterial Meeting - they were combining it with MERFISH to get high-res spatially-resolved transcription profiles in bacteria in the gut. Bonkers.