6/ Thank you

This work was led by @chiaraschiller.bsky.social w help from @kbestak.bsky.social and supervision from @miguelib.bsky.social, @tanevski.bsky.social and @denisschapiro.bsky.social

5/ Real data validation

In myocardial infarction tissues, COZI uniquely detects:
- Early neutrophil infiltration
- Monocyte targeting of stressed cardiomyocytes
- Spatial infiltration gradients

4/ One step in the right direction: COZI

COZI (Conditional Z-score) combines advantageous method features by normalizing neighbor counts based on context and providing a z-score. It captures directional preferences and performs robustly across conditions, cell types, and neighborhood structures.

3/ The Comparison

Using simulated tissues with known patterns, we show that existing methods often:
- Miss directionality of NEP
- Struggle with low-abundance cell types
- Lack sensitivity to detect subtle NEP changes

2/ The problem

Cell-cell spatial relationships are key to tissue function, but comparing NEP across datasets or conditions is tricky. Existing methods differ in how they define neighborhoods, count neighbors, and score NEP—leading to inconsistent results. We identified the common building blocks.

1/
Ever wondered how to best quantify cell-cell neighbor preferences in tissues?
We compared 9+ neighbor preference (NEP) methods for analysing spatial omics data and propose a novel approach that combines the most relevant analysis features which we call COZI 🔬✨

Read more: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

We are searching for a highly motivated and talented computational postdoc with an interest in translational spatial omics to join our team in Heidelberg. Apply now!

karriere.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php?ac...

Quentin Blampey, Lotte Pollaris, @clarencemah.me Laurens Lehner @chiaraschiller.bsky.social @miguelib.bsky.social
We worked on easing the learning curve of the SpatialData framework by improving the documentation and APIs. We prepared new beginner-friendly notebooks and introduced a new more...

@chiaraschiller.bsky.social - Poster 149