Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37972590›Full record

ArticleCell reports methods2023

SpaceWalker enables interactive gradient exploration for spatial transcriptomics data.

Chang Li, Julian Thijssen, Thomas Kroes, Mitchell de Boer, Tamim Abdelaal, Thomas Höllt, Boudewijn Lelieveldt

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Cell reports methods, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Investigating Spatial Dynamics in Spatial Omics Data with StarTrail.Journal of the American Statistical Association · 2026
    Article
  2. Spatial architecture of development and disease.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026
    Review
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Chang LiDepartment of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, 2333 ZA Leiden, the Netherlands.
Julian ThijssenDepartment of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, 2333 ZA Leiden, the Netherlands.
Thomas KroesDepartment of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, 2333 ZA Leiden, the Netherlands.
Mitchell de BoerDepartment of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, 2333 ZA Leiden, the Netherlands.
Tamim AbdelaalDepartment of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, 2333 ZA Leiden, the Netherlands; Delft Bioinformatics Lab, INSY, TU Delft, 2628 XE Delft, the Netherlands.
Thomas HölltComputer Graphics and Visualization, INSY, TU Delft, 2628 XE Delft, the Netherlands.
Boudewijn LelieveldtDepartment of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, 2333 ZA Leiden, the Netherlands; Delft Bioinformatics Lab, INSY, TU Delft, 2628 XE Delft, the Netherlands. Electronic address: b.p.f.lelieveldt@lumc.nl.

Funding

Functionally guided adult whole brain cell atlas in human and NHPUM1MH130981 · NIMH · ALLEN INSTITUTE · PI Ed Lein, Hongkui Zeng · 2022 to 2026
$91.9M
NIMH NIH HHS UM1 MH130981
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In spatial transcriptomics (ST) data, biologically relevant features such as tissue compartments or cell-state transitions are reflected by gene expression gradients. Here, we present SpaceWalker, a visual analytics tool for exploring the local gradient structure of 2D and 3D ST data. The user can be guided by the local intrinsic dimensionality of the high-dimensional data to define seed locations, from which a flood-fill algorithm identifies transcriptomically similar cells on the fly, based on the high-dimensional data topology. In several use cases, we demonstrate that the spatial projection of these flooded cells highlights tissue architectural features and that interactive retrieval of gene expression gradients in the spatial and transcriptomic domains confirms known biology. We also show that SpaceWalker generalizes to several different ST protocols and scales well to large, multi-slice, 3D whole-brain ST data while maintaining real-time interaction performance.

Indexed as

AlgorithmsGene Expression ProfilingBrainFloodsTranscriptomeCP: Systems biologydata visualizationgene expression gradientsspatial transcriptomicsvisual analytics

Identifiers

PMID37972590
PMCPMC10753200

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.