Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39972066›Full record

ReviewNature cell biology2025

Biases in machine-learning models of human single-cell data.

Theresa Willem, Vladimir A Shitov, Malte D Luecken, Niki Kilbertus, Stefan Bauer, Marie Piraud, Alena Buyx, Fabian J Theis

Abstract readReview
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Nature cell biology, 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. Review
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

8 authors.

Theresa WillemTUM School for Medicine and Health, Institute of History and Ethics in Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany. theresa.willem@helmholtz-munich.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7643-8816
Vladimir A ShitovDepartment of Computational Health, Institute of Computational Biology, Helmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1960-8812
Malte D LueckenDepartment of Computational Health, Institute of Computational Biology, Helmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7464-7921
Niki KilbertusHelmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany.
Stefan BauerHelmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany.
Marie PiraudHelmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany.
Alena BuyxTUM School for Medicine and Health, Institute of History and Ethics in Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Fabian J TheisHelmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany. fabian.theis@helmholtz-munich.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2419-1943

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Recent machine-learning (ML)-based advances in single-cell data science have enabled the stratification of human tissue donors at single-cell resolution, promising to provide valuable diagnostic and prognostic insights. However, such insights are susceptible to biases. Here we discuss various biases that emerge along the pipeline of ML-based single-cell analysis, ranging from societal biases affecting whose samples are collected, to clinical and cohort biases that influence the generalizability of single-cell datasets, biases stemming from single-cell sequencing, ML biases specific to (weakly supervised or unsupervised) ML models trained on human single-cell samples and biases during the interpretation of results from ML models. We end by providing methods for single-cell data scientists to assess and mitigate biases, and call for efforts to address the root causes of biases.

Indexed as

Machine LearningSingle-Cell AnalysisBiasHumans

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

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.