Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38565973›Full record

ArticleNature biotechnology2025

The covariance environment defines cellular niches for spatial inference.

Doron Haviv, Ján Remšík, Mohamed Gatie, Catherine Snopkowski, Meril Takizawa, Nathan Pereira, John Bashkin, Stevan Jovanovich, Tal Nawy, Ronan Chaligne and 3 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature biotechnology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 57 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
57citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–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

57 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Review
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  13. Integrating Spatial Proteogenomics in Cancer Research.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026
    Review
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  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Article
  18. Spatiotemporal cell type deconvolution leveraging tissue structure.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors.

Doron HavivComputational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
Ján RemšíkHuman Oncology & Pathogenesis Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3228-2896
Mohamed GatieDevelopmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8500-5609
Catherine SnopkowskiComputational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
Meril TakizawaComputational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
Nathan PereiraS2 Genomics, Livermore, CA, USA.
John BashkinS2 Genomics, Livermore, CA, USA.
Stevan JovanovichS2 Genomics, Livermore, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3285-1091
Tal NawyComputational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3720-3699
Ronan ChaligneComputational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4332-3291
Adrienne BoireHuman Oncology & Pathogenesis Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
Anna-Katerina HadjantonakisDevelopmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
Dana Pe'erComputational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA. peerd@mskcc.org.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9259-8817

Funding

X-RAY CRYSTALLOGRAPHYP30CA008748 · NCI · SLOAN-KETTERING INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RES · PI Hongbiao Carl Lekaye · 1985 to 2026
$347.4M
The Center for Tumor-Immune Systems Biology at MSKCCU54CA274492 · NCI · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · PI Christina S Leslie · 2022 to 2026
$16.3M
Transition to Metastatic State: Lung Cancer, Pancreatic Cancer and Brain MetastasisU2CCA233284 · NCI · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · PI IACOBUZIO-DONAHUE, CHRISTINE A · 2018 to 2022
$12.9M
Tumor-specific T cell state dynamics and heterogeneity in early tumorigenesisU54CA209975 · NCI · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · PI LESLIE, CHRISTINA S, RUDENSKY, ALEXANDER Y · 2016 to 2021
$11.8M
Mechanisms driving cell fate specification and morphogenesis in the blastocystR01HD094868 · NICHD · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · PI ANNA-KATERINA HADJANTONAKIS · 2018 to 2026
$4.2M
The gut endoderm: origin, formation and fateR01DK127821 · NIDDK · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · PI ANNA-KATERINA HADJANTONAKIS · 2021 to 2026
$3.4M
Howard Hughes Medical InstituteNCI NIH HHS P30 CA008748NCI NIH HHS U2C CA233284NCI NIH HHS U54 CA209975NCI NIH HHS U54 CA274492NICHD NIH HHS R01 HD094868NIDDK NIH HHS R01 DK127821U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Cancer Institute (NCI) CA209975U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Cancer Institute (NCI) CA233284U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Cancer Institute (NCI) DK127821
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

A key challenge of analyzing data from high-resolution spatial profiling technologies is to suitably represent the features of cellular neighborhoods or niches. Here we introduce the covariance environment (COVET), a representation that leverages the gene-gene covariate structure across cells in the niche to capture the multivariate nature of cellular interactions within it. We define a principled optimal transport-based distance metric between COVET niches that scales to millions of cells. Using COVET to encode spatial context, we developed environmental variational inference (ENVI), a conditional variational autoencoder that jointly embeds spatial and single-cell RNA sequencing data into a latent space. ENVI includes two decoders: one to impute gene expression across the spatial modality and a second to project spatial information onto single-cell data. ENVI can confer spatial context to genomics data from single dissociated cells and outperforms alternatives for imputing gene expression on diverse spatial datasets.

Indexed as

Single-Cell AnalysisAlgorithmsGene Expression ProfilingHumansSequence Analysis, RNA

Identifiers

PMID38565973
PMCPMC11445396

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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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.