Identifying tissue-specific or cancer-related markers from the dataset.
[ ] Segmentation-Free Analysis
Explanation of segmentation-free methods and how they differ from traditional segmentation.
Application of segmentation-free spatial clustering methods to identify regions of interest in the brain (e.g., tumor regions vs. healthy brain tissue).
[ ] Functional Annotation of Spatial Domains
Linking spatial clusters to biological functions or cell types using reference atlases or databases.
Performing gene set enrichment analysis for spatially defined regions.
[ ] Interpreting Results and Biological Insights
How to interpret spatial patterns in the context of cancer biology and mouse brain structure.
Potential downstream analyses: differential expression between cancerous and non-cancerous regions, spatial heterogeneity analysis.
In the preliminary version of the practical 1, I try to cover following topics:
[ ] Introduction to Imaging-Based Spatial Transcriptomics (Xenium Platform)
Overview of Xenium technology and its application in spatial transcriptomics.
Differences between segmentation-based and segmentation-free analysis in imaging data.
[ ] Data Preprocessing and QC
Loading Xenium spatial transcriptomics data (mouse brain, cancer).
Key preprocessing steps: background subtraction, normalization.
Quality control metrics for imaging data (e.g., gene detection rates, signal-to-noise ratio).
[ ] Spatial Data Structures
Understanding the structure of spatial transcriptomics datasets: gene expression matrices and spatial coordinates.
Mapping gene expression to spatial coordinates (2D or 3D visualization of mouse brain tissue sections).
[ ] Exploratory Data Analysis
Visualizing spatial gene expression patterns using Python libraries (e.g., Scanpy, Squidpy, napari).
Identifying tissue-specific or cancer-related markers from the dataset.
[ ] Segmentation-Free Analysis
Explanation of segmentation-free methods and how they differ from traditional segmentation.
Application of segmentation-free spatial clustering methods to identify regions of interest in the brain (e.g., tumor regions vs. healthy brain tissue).
[ ] Functional Annotation of Spatial Domains
Linking spatial clusters to biological functions or cell types using reference atlases or databases.
Performing gene set enrichment analysis for spatially defined regions.
[ ] Interpreting Results and Biological Insights
How to interpret spatial patterns in the context of cancer biology and mouse brain structure.
Potential downstream analyses: differential expression between cancerous and non-cancerous regions, spatial heterogeneity analysis.