Geometry-First Generative Spatial Single-Cell Reconstruction

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Hauptverfasser: Azim, Ehtesamul, Alif, Muhtasim Noor, Hwang, Tae Hyun, Fu, Yanjie, Zhang, Wei
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Azim, Ehtesamul
Alif, Muhtasim Noor
Hwang, Tae Hyun
Fu, Yanjie
Zhang, Wei
author_facet Azim, Ehtesamul
Alif, Muhtasim Noor
Hwang, Tae Hyun
Fu, Yanjie
Zhang, Wei
contents Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) profiles large numbers of cells but loses spatial context, whereas spatial transcriptomics (ST) preserves partial spatial structure at lower resolution. Most existing integration methods either deconvolve spot mixtures or map cells onto a measured spot lattice, which ties reconstructions to a fixed grid and slide-specific coordinate systems, a limitation that is especially problematic in unpaired settings. We propose GEARS, a geometry-first framework that reconstructs an intrinsic single-cell spatial geometry guided by ST, without relying on cell-type labels, histological images, or cell-to-spot assignment. GEARS first learns a domain-invariant expression encoder that aligns ST spots and dissociated cells, and then trains a permutation-equivariant generator with a diffusion-based refiner with EDM-style preconditioning to generate local spatial geometries under pose-invariant supervision derived from ST coordinates. At inference, GEARS reconstructs geometry on many overlapping subsets of scRNA-seq cells, aggregates predicted pairwise distances across subsets, and solves a global distance-geometry problem to obtain canonical two-dimensional coordinates and a dense distance matrix. Extensive quantitative and qualitative experiments, including cross-section generalization, show that GEARS consistently improves global distance preservation, local neighborhood fidelity, and spatial distribution alignment compared to strong spatial mapping and deconvolution baselines.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_28200
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Geometry-First Generative Spatial Single-Cell Reconstruction
Azim, Ehtesamul
Alif, Muhtasim Noor
Hwang, Tae Hyun
Fu, Yanjie
Zhang, Wei
Machine Learning
Genomics
Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) profiles large numbers of cells but loses spatial context, whereas spatial transcriptomics (ST) preserves partial spatial structure at lower resolution. Most existing integration methods either deconvolve spot mixtures or map cells onto a measured spot lattice, which ties reconstructions to a fixed grid and slide-specific coordinate systems, a limitation that is especially problematic in unpaired settings. We propose GEARS, a geometry-first framework that reconstructs an intrinsic single-cell spatial geometry guided by ST, without relying on cell-type labels, histological images, or cell-to-spot assignment. GEARS first learns a domain-invariant expression encoder that aligns ST spots and dissociated cells, and then trains a permutation-equivariant generator with a diffusion-based refiner with EDM-style preconditioning to generate local spatial geometries under pose-invariant supervision derived from ST coordinates. At inference, GEARS reconstructs geometry on many overlapping subsets of scRNA-seq cells, aggregates predicted pairwise distances across subsets, and solves a global distance-geometry problem to obtain canonical two-dimensional coordinates and a dense distance matrix. Extensive quantitative and qualitative experiments, including cross-section generalization, show that GEARS consistently improves global distance preservation, local neighborhood fidelity, and spatial distribution alignment compared to strong spatial mapping and deconvolution baselines.
title Geometry-First Generative Spatial Single-Cell Reconstruction
topic Machine Learning
Genomics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.28200