Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41478891›Full record

ReviewNature reviews. Genetics2026

Interpretation, extrapolation and perturbation of single cells.

Daniel Dimitrov, Stefan Schrod, Martin Rohbeck, Oliver Stegle

Abstract readReview
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Nature reviews. Genetics, 2026. 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. Review
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. 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

4 authors.

Daniel Dimitrov *Genome Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany. daniel.dimitrov@embl.de.ORCID 0000-0002-5197-2112
Stefan Schrod *Genome Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany. stefan.schrod@embl.de.ORCID 0000-0001-9936-3984
Martin RohbeckDivision of Computational Genomics and Systems Genetics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
Oliver StegleGenome Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany. oliver.stegle@embl.de.ORCID 0000-0002-8818-7193

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Single-cell analyses have transitioned from descriptive atlasing towards inferring causal effects and mechanistic relationships that capture cellular logic. Technological advances and the growing scale of observational and interventional datasets have fuelled the development of machine learning methods aimed at identifying such dependencies and extrapolating perturbation effects. Here, we review and connect these approaches according to their modelling concepts (including representation learning, causal inference, mechanistic discovery, disentanglement and population tracing), underlying assumptions and downstream tasks. We propose a unifying ontology to guide practitioners in selecting the most suitable methods for a given biological question, with detailed technical descriptions provided in an online resource . Finally, we identify promising computational directions and underexplored data properties that could pave the way for future developments.

Indexed as

Computational BiologyMachine LearningSingle-Cell AnalysisAnimalsHumans

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.