A method for determining spatial location of one or more biological components (12) in a biological sample (10) is proposed. The method comprises optically encoding (S100) the biological components (12) in the biological sample (10) with a plurality of fluorophores (31, 32, 33, 34) to create a combination of active fluorophore concentrations indicative of the spatial location of the one or more biological components (12); dissociating (S200) the biological components (12) from the biological sample (10) to create dissociated biological components (12) of the biological components (12); and - optically decoding (S300) by measuring the fluorescence (S310) of the dissociated biological components (12) and mapping (S320) to the spatial location of the biological components (12) in the non-dissociated sample (10).