BERMUDA: a novel deep transfer learning method for single-cell RNA sequencing batch correction reveals hidden high-resolution cellular subtypes.

Journal: Genome biology
PMID:

Abstract

To fully utilize the power of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technologies for identifying cell lineages and bona fide transcriptional signals, it is necessary to combine data from multiple experiments. We present BERMUDA (Batch Effect ReMoval Using Deep Autoencoders), a novel transfer-learning-based method for batch effect correction in scRNA-seq data. BERMUDA effectively combines different batches of scRNA-seq data with vastly different cell population compositions and amplifies biological signals by transferring information among batches. We demonstrate that BERMUDA outperforms existing methods for removing batch effects and distinguishing cell types in multiple simulated and real scRNA-seq datasets.

Authors

  • Tongxin Wang
    Department of Computer Science, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA.
  • Travis S Johnson
    Department of Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
  • Wei Shao
  • Zixiao Lu
    School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China.
  • Bryan R Helm
    Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
  • Jie Zhang
    College of Physical Education and Health, Linyi University, Linyi, Shandong, China.
  • Kun Huang
    Department of Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA. Kun.Huang@osumc.edu.