Using artificial intelligence for error correction in single-cell RNA sequencing

The increased sensitivity of the technique, however, also means increased susceptibility to the batch effect. "The batch effect describes fluctuations between measurements that can occur, for example, if the temperature of the device deviates even slightly or the processing time of the cells changes," Maren Büttner explains. Although several models exist for the correction of these deviations, those methods are highly dependent on the actual magnitude of the effect. "We therefore developed a user-friendly, robust and sensitive measure called kBET that quantifies differences between experiments and therefore facilitates the comparison of different correction results," Büttner says.