Advancing spatial cellular communication inference with ligand diffusion and transport model.

ABSTRACT: Cell-cell communication is fundamental for coordinating cellular activities, maintaining tissue homeostasis, and supporting physiological functions. This complex process is primarily mediated by ligand-receptor interactions, in which ligands bind to cognate receptors to trigger downstream signaling. Conventional approaches for inferring cellular communication from single-cell transcriptomics are constrained by group-level resolution and spatial false-positive artifacts. The advent of spatial transcriptomics technologies has overcome these limitations by enabling spatially resolved analyses of communication events. In this study, we present SCILD (Spatial Cellular communication Inference with Ligand Diffusion and transport model), an interpretable optimization-based framework that infers sp

SUBMITTER: Yu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12855878 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature