Pathway-based Bayesian factor models for 'omics data

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Mauri, Lorenzo, Stolf, Federica, Herring, Amy H., Miller, Cameron, Dunson, David B.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Mauri, Lorenzo
Stolf, Federica
Herring, Amy H.
Miller, Cameron
Dunson, David B.
author_facet Mauri, Lorenzo
Stolf, Federica
Herring, Amy H.
Miller, Cameron
Dunson, David B.
contents Interpreting RNA-sequencing data requires identifying coordinated gene expression patterns that correspond to biological pathways. Standard factor models provide useful dimension reduction but typically ignore existing pathway knowledge or incorporate it through restrictive assumptions, limiting interpretability, and reproducibility. Here, we develop Bayesian Analysis with gene-Sets Informed Latent space (BASIL), a scalable framework for analyzing transcriptomic data that integrates annotated gene sets into latent variable inference. BASIL places structured priors on factor loadings, shrinking them toward combinations of annotated gene sets, enhancing biological interpretability and stability, while simultaneously learning new unstructured components. BASIL provides accurate covariance estimates and uncertainty quantification, without resorting to computationally expensive Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling, by exploiting a pre-training approach that pre-estimates the latent factors. An automatic empirical Bayes procedure eliminates the need for manual hyperparameter tuning, promoting reproducibility and usability in practice. Applying BASIL to the global fever transcriptomic cohort uncovers interpretable host-response modules, with phosphoinositide signaling and interferon-driven inflammation emerging as key drivers of gene-expression variability.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_13419
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Pathway-based Bayesian factor models for 'omics data
Mauri, Lorenzo
Stolf, Federica
Herring, Amy H.
Miller, Cameron
Dunson, David B.
Methodology
Applications
Interpreting RNA-sequencing data requires identifying coordinated gene expression patterns that correspond to biological pathways. Standard factor models provide useful dimension reduction but typically ignore existing pathway knowledge or incorporate it through restrictive assumptions, limiting interpretability, and reproducibility. Here, we develop Bayesian Analysis with gene-Sets Informed Latent space (BASIL), a scalable framework for analyzing transcriptomic data that integrates annotated gene sets into latent variable inference. BASIL places structured priors on factor loadings, shrinking them toward combinations of annotated gene sets, enhancing biological interpretability and stability, while simultaneously learning new unstructured components. BASIL provides accurate covariance estimates and uncertainty quantification, without resorting to computationally expensive Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling, by exploiting a pre-training approach that pre-estimates the latent factors. An automatic empirical Bayes procedure eliminates the need for manual hyperparameter tuning, promoting reproducibility and usability in practice. Applying BASIL to the global fever transcriptomic cohort uncovers interpretable host-response modules, with phosphoinositide signaling and interferon-driven inflammation emerging as key drivers of gene-expression variability.
title Pathway-based Bayesian factor models for 'omics data
topic Methodology
Applications
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.13419