Predicting cell morphological responses to perturbations using generative modeling

Abstract Advancements in high-throughput screenings enable the exploration of rich phenotypic readouts through high-content microscopy, expediting the development of phenotype-based drug discovery. However, analyzing large and complex high-content imaging screenings remains challenging due to incomp...

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Main Authors: Alessandro Palma, Fabian J. Theis, Mohammad Lotfollahi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-01-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55707-8
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author Alessandro Palma
Fabian J. Theis
Mohammad Lotfollahi
author_facet Alessandro Palma
Fabian J. Theis
Mohammad Lotfollahi
author_sort Alessandro Palma
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Advancements in high-throughput screenings enable the exploration of rich phenotypic readouts through high-content microscopy, expediting the development of phenotype-based drug discovery. However, analyzing large and complex high-content imaging screenings remains challenging due to incomplete sampling of perturbations and the presence of technical variations between experiments. To tackle these shortcomings, we present IMage Perturbation Autoencoder (IMPA), a generative style-transfer model predicting morphological changes of perturbations across genetic and chemical interventions. We show that IMPA accurately captures morphological and population-level changes of both seen and unseen perturbations on breast cancer and osteosarcoma cells. Additionally, IMPA accounts for batch effects and can model perturbations across various sources of technical variation, further enhancing its robustness in diverse experimental conditions. With the increasing availability of large-scale high-content imaging screens generated by academic and industrial consortia, we envision that IMPA will facilitate the analysis of microscopy data and enable efficient experimental design via in-silico perturbation prediction.
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spelling doaj-art-8a815f03be9c41d4aaa26a47a9a9bdbf2025-01-12T12:30:37ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-01-0116111910.1038/s41467-024-55707-8Predicting cell morphological responses to perturbations using generative modelingAlessandro Palma0Fabian J. Theis1Mohammad Lotfollahi2Department of Computational Health, Institute of Computational BiologyDepartment of Computational Health, Institute of Computational BiologyDepartment of Computational Health, Institute of Computational BiologyAbstract Advancements in high-throughput screenings enable the exploration of rich phenotypic readouts through high-content microscopy, expediting the development of phenotype-based drug discovery. However, analyzing large and complex high-content imaging screenings remains challenging due to incomplete sampling of perturbations and the presence of technical variations between experiments. To tackle these shortcomings, we present IMage Perturbation Autoencoder (IMPA), a generative style-transfer model predicting morphological changes of perturbations across genetic and chemical interventions. We show that IMPA accurately captures morphological and population-level changes of both seen and unseen perturbations on breast cancer and osteosarcoma cells. Additionally, IMPA accounts for batch effects and can model perturbations across various sources of technical variation, further enhancing its robustness in diverse experimental conditions. With the increasing availability of large-scale high-content imaging screens generated by academic and industrial consortia, we envision that IMPA will facilitate the analysis of microscopy data and enable efficient experimental design via in-silico perturbation prediction.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55707-8
spellingShingle Alessandro Palma
Fabian J. Theis
Mohammad Lotfollahi
Predicting cell morphological responses to perturbations using generative modeling
Nature Communications
title Predicting cell morphological responses to perturbations using generative modeling
title_full Predicting cell morphological responses to perturbations using generative modeling
title_fullStr Predicting cell morphological responses to perturbations using generative modeling
title_full_unstemmed Predicting cell morphological responses to perturbations using generative modeling
title_short Predicting cell morphological responses to perturbations using generative modeling
title_sort predicting cell morphological responses to perturbations using generative modeling
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55707-8
work_keys_str_mv AT alessandropalma predictingcellmorphologicalresponsestoperturbationsusinggenerativemodeling
AT fabianjtheis predictingcellmorphologicalresponsestoperturbationsusinggenerativemodeling
AT mohammadlotfollahi predictingcellmorphologicalresponsestoperturbationsusinggenerativemodeling