Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42482153›Full record

ArticleBioinformatics (Oxford, England)2026

Deciphering spatial heterogeneity by multimodal spatial transcriptomics modelling with SpatialModal.

Xingyi Li, Dongmin Zhao, Xiangting Jia, Gaoyuan Du, Jialuo Xu, Yang Qi, Yiqi Chen, Yingfu Wu, Jia Gu, Junnan Zhu and 1 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Bioinformatics (Oxford, England), 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

11 authors.

Xingyi LiSchool of Computer Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Shaanxi, 710129, China.ORCID 0000-0002-6004-4174
Dongmin ZhaoSchool of Computer Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Shaanxi, 710129, China.
Xiangting JiaSchool of Computer Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Shaanxi, 710129, China.
Gaoyuan DuSchool of Computer Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Shaanxi, 710129, China.
Jialuo XuSchool of Computer Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Shaanxi, 710129, China.
Yang QiSchool of Computer Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Shaanxi, 710129, China.ORCID 0000-0002-5742-9532
Yiqi ChenSchool of Computer Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Shaanxi, 710129, China.
Yingfu WuSchool of Computer Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Shaanxi, 710129, China.ORCID 0009-0003-8806-8914
Jia GuFaculty of Data Science, City University of Macau, Macau, Macau 999078, China.
Junnan ZhuState Key Laboratory of Multimodal Artificial Intelligence Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
Xuequn ShangSchool of Computer Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Shaanxi, 710129, China.

Funding

Fundamental and Interdisciplinary Disciplines Breakthrough Plan of the Ministry of Education of China JYB2025XDXM202Macau Young Scholars Program AM2024027National Natural Science Foundation of China 62433016Young Talent Fund of Xi'an Association for Science and Technology 0959202513204
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

motivationAdvances in spatial transcriptomics (ST) technologies have made it possible to jointly acquire gene expression and histological image information while preserving spatial coordinates. This breakthrough presents unprecedented opportunities for the precise dissection of spatial heterogeneity in complex tissues. However, existing computational methods remain limited in their capacity for effective integration and synergistic modelling of multimodal ST data.

resultsWe propose SpatialModal, a multimodal graph learning framework that learns robust joint representations by combining a hierarchical representation strategy with a dual-level contrastive learning mechanism. We perform extensive validation of SpatialModal across diverse ST datasets spanning human and mouse tissues. The results demonstrate that SpatialModal effectively reveals intricate brain architectures in humans and mice, dissects tumour microenvironment heterogeneity in breast cancer, delineates Alzheimer's disease patterns, and characterizes spatiotemporal developmental trajectories within the embryonic heart, underscoring its capability to decipher the spatial heterogeneity of biological tissues. Furthermore, SpatialModal exhibits remarkable versatility and robustness, maintaining superior efficacy even on unimodal datasets devoid of histological images, thereby ensuring its broad applicability across diverse ST platforms. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: SpatialModal is implemented in Python and is freely available at https://github.com/xingyili/SpatialModal. The source code used in this study has been archived on Zenodo at DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21264356. All datasets used in this study are publicly available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18220735.

Indexed as

Computational BiologyGene Expression ProfilingSpatial TranscriptomicsTranscriptomeAlzheimer DiseaseAnimalsBrainBreast NeoplasmsHumansMice

Identifiers

PMID42482153
PMCPMC13453310

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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.