Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39819525›Full record

ArticleeLife2025

CausalXtract, a flexible pipeline to extract causal effects from live-cell time-lapse imaging data.

Franck Simon, Maria Colomba Comes, Tiziana Tocci, Louise Dupuis, Vincent Cabeli, Nikita Lagrange, Arianna Mencattini, Maria Carla Parrini, Eugenio Martinelli, Herve Isambert

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in eLife, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing 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

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Twenty years ofFrontiers in toxicology · 2024
    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

10 authors.

Franck Simon *CNRS UMR168, Institut Curie, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6952-0819
Maria Colomba Comes *Department of Electronic Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
Tiziana Tocci *CNRS UMR168, Institut Curie, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France.
Louise DupuisCNRS UMR168, Institut Curie, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France.
Vincent CabeliCNRS UMR168, Institut Curie, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France.
Nikita LagrangeCNRS UMR168, Institut Curie, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France.
Arianna MencattiniDepartment of Electronic Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
Maria Carla ParriniINSERM U830, Institut Curie, Université PSL, Paris, France.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7082-9792
Eugenio MartinelliDepartment of Electronic Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
Herve IsambertCNRS UMR168, Institut Curie, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9638-8545

Funding

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique CNRS-Imperial College joint PhD programmeÉcole Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay AMX PhD fellowshipFondation ARC pour la Recherche sur le Cancer 4th year PhD fellowshipHORIZON EUROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions 847718Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale ITMO Cancer (20CM106)
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Live-cell microscopy routinely provides massive amounts of time-lapse images of complex cellular systems under various physiological or therapeutic conditions. However, this wealth of data remains difficult to interpret in terms of causal effects. Here, we describe CausalXtract, a flexible computational pipeline that discovers causal and possibly time-lagged effects from morphodynamic features and cell-cell interactions in live-cell imaging data. CausalXtract methodology combines network-based and information-based frameworks, which is shown to discover causal effects overlooked by classical Granger and Schreiber causality approaches. We showcase the use of CausalXtract to uncover novel causal effects in a tumor-on-chip cellular ecosystem under therapeutically relevant conditions. In particular, we find that cancer-associated fibroblasts directly inhibit cancer cell apoptosis, independently from anticancer treatment. CausalXtract uncovers also multiple antagonistic effects at different time delays. Hence, CausalXtract provides a unique computational tool to interpret live-cell imaging data for a range of fundamental and translational research applications.

Indexed as

Computational BiologyImage Processing, Computer-AssistedTime-Lapse ImagingApoptosisCell CommunicationCell Line, TumorFibroblastsHumanscausal discoverycausal inferencecomputational biologygranger causalityhumanlive-cell imagingsystems biologytime-lapse image analysistumor on chip

Identifiers

PMID39819525
PMCPMC11741518

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

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.