Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42064250›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in bioinformatics2026

SpatialFinder: a human-in-the-loop vision-language framework for prioritizing high-value regions in spatial transcriptomics.

Jonathan Xu, Michelle Jiang, Shunsuke Koga, Nancy Zhang, Zhi Huang

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in bioinformatics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

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

5 authors.

Jonathan XuThe Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Michelle JiangCollege of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Shunsuke KogaHospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Nancy ZhangThe Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Zhi HuangDepartment of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Sequencing an entire spatial transcriptomics slide can cost thousands of dollars per assay, making routine use impractical. Focusing on smaller regions of interest (ROIs) based on adjacent H&E slides offers a practical alternative, but there is (i) no reliable way to identify the most informative areas from standard H&E images alone; and (ii) limited solutions for clinicians to prioritize the microenvironment of their own interests. Here we introduce SpatialFinder, a framework that combines a biomedical vision-language model (VLM) with a human-in-the-loop optimization pipeline to predict gene expression heterogeneity and rank high-value ROIs across routine H&E tissue slides. Evaluated across four Visium HD tissue types, SpatialFinder consistently outperforms VLM-only baselines for both diversity- and tumor-targeted ROI ranking, achieving Spearman's

Indexed as

clinical decision makingdigital pathologyhuman-in-the-loopspatial transcriptomicsvision-language models (VLMs)

Identifiers

PMID42064250
PMCPMC13124733

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.