Assessing heterogeneity in spatial data using the HTA index with applications to spatial transcriptomics and imaging.

ABSTRACT:

Motivation

Tumour heterogeneity is being increasingly recognized as an important characteristic of cancer and as a determinant of prognosis and treatment outcome. Emerging spatial transcriptomics data hold the potential to further our understanding of tumour heterogeneity and its implications. However, existing statistical tools are not sufficiently powerful to capture heterogeneity in the complex setting of spatial molecular biology.

Results

We provide a statistical solution, the HeTerogeneity Average index (HTA), specifically designed to handle the multivariate nature of spatial transcriptomics. We prove that HTA has an approximately normal distribution, therefore lending itself to efficient statistical assessment and inference. We first demonstrate that HTA accurately ref

SUBMITTER: Levy-Jurgenson A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8598444 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature