Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42830441›Full record

ArticleBioinformatics (Oxford, England)2026

Quantifying distribution shifts in single-cell data with scXMatch.

Anna Möller, Miriam Schnitzerlein, Eric Greto, Vasily Zaburdaev, Stefan Uderhardt, David B Blumenthal

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.

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0citing papers in PubMed
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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

6 authors.

Anna MöllerBiomedical Network Science Lab, Department of Artificial Intelligence in Biomedical Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, 91052, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-7517-8549
Miriam SchnitzerleinDepartment of Biology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, 91058, Germany.ORCID 0009-0002-6609-4479
Eric GretoDepartment of Medicine 3-Rheumatology and Immunology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Erlangen, 91054, Germany.
Vasily ZaburdaevDepartment of Biology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, 91058, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-8234-3442
Stefan UderhardtDepartment of Medicine 3-Rheumatology and Immunology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Erlangen, 91054, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-2489-2109
David B BlumenthalBiomedical Network Science Lab, Department of Artificial Intelligence in Biomedical Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, 91052, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-8651-750X

Funding

European Research Council 101039438German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space 031L0309AGerman Research Foundation 447268119German Research Foundation 448121430German Research Foundation 505539112German Research Foundation 516188180German Research Foundation 550296805German Research Foundation CRC1755Hightech Agenda BavariaKlaus Tschira Stiftung 00.003.2024Research Training Group "Immunomicrotope," 2740
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

motivationA basic task that frequently arises when analyzing single-cell data is to assess if there is a global distribution shift between the data profiles of cells from two different conditions. Widely used approaches to address this task such as visual inspection of two-dimensional representations or clustering-based workflows lack a solid statistical underpinning and are notoriously unstable and prone to confirmation bias.

resultsTo promote more rigorous analysis, we present scXMatch. scXMatch is based on a non-parametric graph-based test to quantify distribution shifts in arbitrary data spaces for which a suitable distance measure is available. We evaluated scXMatch on single-cell gene expression, chromatin accessibility, and imaging-derived cell morphology data, showing that it can robustly detect distribution shifts for different types of single-cell data. scXMatch thus aims to set a new standard in the single-cell biology field, replacing easy-to-manipulate semi-manual distribution shift quantification workflows by principled statistical testing. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Python source code of scXMatch is available at https://github.com/bionetslab/scxmatch, a packaged version at https://anaconda.org/bioconda/scxmatch, and scripts to reproduce our results at https://github.com/bionetslab/scXMatch_paper (stable releases at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20665675).

Indexed as

Computational BiologySingle-Cell AnalysisSoftwareAlgorithmsChromatinSingle-Cell Gene Expression AnalysisChromatin

Identifiers

PMID42830441
PMCPMC13645430

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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.