Benchmarking single cell transcriptome matching methods for incremental growth of cell atlases

This study benchmarks seven computational tools for single-cell transcriptome matching across ten organ systems to reveal their complementary strengths and establish a framework for the incremental growth and harmonization of cell atlases.

Hu, J., Peng, B., Pankajam, A. V., Xu, B., Deshpande, V. A., Bueckle, A. D., Herr, B. W., Borner, K., Dupont, C. L., Scheuermann, R. H., Zhang, Y.2026-03-29💻 bioinformatics

DeepBranchAI: A Novel Cascade Workflow Enabling Accessible 3D Branching Network Segmentation

DeepBranchAI introduces a novel cascade workflow that overcomes the annotation bottleneck in 3D branching network segmentation by iteratively refining sparse labels through a positive feedback loop of random forests and expert input, ultimately enabling the training of a robust, topology-preserving 3D nnU-Net model that achieves high accuracy across diverse biological and medical datasets while significantly reducing manual annotation time.

Maltsev, A. V., Hartnell, L., Ferrucci, L.2026-03-29💻 bioinformatics

A run-length-compressed skiplist data structure for dynamic GBWTs supports time and space efficient pangenome operations over syncmers

This paper introduces a dynamic, run-length-compressed skiplist data structure for the graph Burrows-Wheeler transform (GBWT) that enables time and space-efficient pangenome operations on syncmer graphs, successfully building a 5.8 GB lossless representation of 92 human genomes in under an hour and supporting rapid sequence matching.

Durbin, R.2026-03-29💻 bioinformatics

Single-Cell Analysis of Microglia and Monocyte Dynamics Uncover Distinct TNF-a-driven Neuroimmune Signatures after Intracerebral Hemorrhage

This study utilizes single-cell transcriptomics of human intracerebral hemorrhage patients to reveal that transient, TNF-driven activation of hematoma-infiltrating monocytes by microglia via TNFR2 signaling is associated with improved neurological recovery.

Kawamura, Y., Johnson, C., DeLong, J., de Lima Camillo, L. P., Velazquez, S. E., Takahashi, M., Beatty, H. E., Herbert, R., Cord, B. J., Matouk, C., Askenase, M., Sansing, L. H.2026-03-28💻 bioinformatics

Inverse signal importance in real exposome: How do biological systems dynamically prioritize multiple environmental signals?

This study introduces a machine learning framework called Inverse Signal Importance (ISI) to analyze how medaka fish dynamically prioritize multiple environmental signals for gonadal development in natural settings, revealing complex adaptive mechanisms that are often missed in controlled laboratory studies.

Itoh, T., Kondo, Y., Nakayama, T., Shinomiya, A., Aoki, K., Yoshimura, T., Naoki, H.2026-03-28💻 bioinformatics

Open-source, Hardware-Independent GPU Acceleration for Scalable Nanopore Basecalling with Slorado and Openfish

This paper introduces Openfish, an open-source GPU-accelerated decoding library, and Slorado, a fully open-source basecalling framework, to provide a hardware-independent, scalable, and accurate alternative to Oxford Nanopore Technologies' proprietary Dorado software, thereby eliminating hardware lock-in and enhancing accessibility for nanopore sequencing.

Wong, B., Singh, G., Javaid, H., Denolf, K., Liyanage, K., Samarakoon, H., Deveson, I. W., Gamaarachchi, H.2026-03-28💻 bioinformatics

scMagnifier: resolving fine-grained cell subtypes via GRN-informed perturbations and consensus clustering

scMagnifier is a consensus clustering framework that leverages gene regulatory network-informed in silico perturbations and a novel visualization method to amplify subtle transcriptional differences, thereby enabling the high-resolution identification and spatial mapping of fine-grained cell subtypes in both single-cell and spatial transcriptomics data.

He, Z., Kangning, D.2026-03-28💻 bioinformatics