PhitestR

PhitestR evaluates the homogeneity of identified cell populations in single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) datasets to assess and improve the quality of inferred clusters for downstream biological interpretation.

Key Features:

• Homogeneity assessment: Performs an objective, automated evaluation to distinguish homogeneous from heterogeneous single-cell clusters.
• scRNA-seq compatibility: Operates on single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) datasets across species, tissues, and cell types.
• Cluster quality evaluation: Assesses the quality of clusters produced by unsupervised clustering algorithms to inform downstream analyses.
• Data input: Applies to previously published datasets and does not require generation of new genomic data.
• Implementation: Provided as the PhitestR package.

Scientific Applications:

• Cluster validation: Validates and refines cluster assignments from scRNA-seq analyses.
• Accurate cell-type interpretation: Supports interpretation of cell-type definitions in studies of development, physiology, and pathology.
• Quality control for downstream analysis: Identifies heterogeneous populations that may represent artifacts or mixed cell states to improve downstream reliability.

Methodology:

Analyzes homogeneity within clusters identified by unsupervised clustering algorithms on scRNA-seq data and automatically distinguishes homogeneous versus heterogeneous cell populations.