Reproduce published osmFISH results with starfish

osmFISH is an image based transcriptomics technique that can spatially resolve tens of RNA transcripts and their expression levels in situ. The protocol and data analysis are described in this publication. This notebook walks through how to use starfish to process the raw images from an osmFISH experiment into a spatially resolved gene expression image. We verify that starfish can accurately reproduce the results from the authors’ original Python pipeline

from IPython import get_ipython
import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# equivalent to %gui qt and %matplotlib inline
ipython = get_ipython()
ipython.magic("gui qt5")
ipython.magic("matplotlib inline")

matplotlib.rcParams["figure.dpi"] = 150

Load Data into starfish from the cloud

The data from an osmFISH experiment are similar in form to a standard smFISH experiment. For each round, each color channel corresponds to presence of a particular gene. Across rounds, the color channels index different genes. Here, we analyze one FOV from the first round (r) and first channel (c), which consists of 45 z-planes (z). Each image in this image stack is of dimensions 2048x2048. The data are taken from mouse somatosensory cortex, and the gene in this channel is Adloc.

from starfish import data
from starfish import FieldOfView

experiment = data.osmFISH(use_test_data=True)
imgs = experiment["fov_000"].get_image(FieldOfView.PRIMARY_IMAGES)
print(imgs)

Filter and visualize data

First, we remove background signal using a gaussian high-pass filter.

from starfish.image import Filter

filter_ghp = Filter.GaussianHighPass(sigma=(1, 8, 8), is_volume=True)
imgs_ghp = filter_ghp.run(imgs, in_place=False)

Next, we enhance the spots by filtering with a Laplace filter.

filter_laplace = Filter.Laplace(sigma=(0.2, 0.5, 0.5), is_volume=True)
imgs_ghp_laplace = filter_laplace.run(imgs_ghp, in_place=False)

Finally, we take a maximum projection over z, which effectively mitigates effects of out of focus z-planes.

from starfish.types import Axes

mp = imgs_ghp_laplace.reduce({Axes.ZPLANE}, func="max")

We can now visualize our data before and after filtering.

from numpy import np

single_plane = imgs.reduce({Axes.ZPLANE}, func="max").xarray.sel({Axes.CH:0}).squeeze()
single_plane_filtered = mp.xarray.sel({Axes.CH: 0}).squeeze()

plt.figure(figsize=(10, 10))
plt.subplot(121)
plt.imshow(single_plane, cmap='gray', clim=list(np.percentile(single_plane.data, [1, 99.9])))
plt.axis('off')
plt.title('Original data, Round:0, Channel: 0')
plt.subplot(122)
plt.imshow(single_plane_filtered, cmap='gray', clim=list(np.percentile(single_plane_filtered.data, [1, 99.9])))
plt.title('Filtered data, Round:0, Channel: 0')
plt.axis('off')

Decode the processed data into spatially resolved gene expression

Decoding in a non-multiplexed image based transcriptomics method is equivalent to simple spot finding, since each spot in each color channel and round corresponds to a different gene. To find spots in osmFISH data, the authors employ a peak finder that distinguishes local maxima from their surroundings whose absolute intensities exceed a threshold value. It tests a number of different thresholds, building a curve from the number of peaks detected at each threshold. A threshold in the stable region or knee of the curve is selected, and final peaks are called with that threshold.

This process is repeated independently for each round and channel. Here we show this process on a single round and channel to demonstrate the procedure. See the documentation for a precise description of the parameters.

from starfish.spots import DecodeSpots, FindSpots
from starfish.types import TraceBuildingStrategies

lmp = FindSpots.LocalMaxPeakFinder(
    min_distance=6,
    stringency=0,
    min_obj_area=6,
    max_obj_area=600,
    is_volume=True
)
spots = lmp.run(mp)

decoder = DecodeSpots.PerRoundMaxChannel(codebook=experiment.codebook,
                                         trace_building_strategy=TraceBuildingStrategies.SEQUENTIAL)
decoded_intensities = decoder.run(spots=spots)

Compare to pySMFISH peak calls

The Field of view that we’ve used for the test data corresponds to Aldoc, imaged in round one, in position 33. We’ve also packaged the results from the osmFISH publication for this target to demonstrate that starfish is capable of recovering the same results.

import os
import pandas as pd
import pickle


def load_results(pickle_file):
    with open(pickle_file, "rb") as f:
        return pickle.load(f)

def get_benchmark_peaks(loaded_results, redo_flag=False):

    if not redo_flag:
        sp = pd.DataFrame(
            {
                "y":loaded_results["selected_peaks"][:, 0],
                "x":loaded_results["selected_peaks"][:, 1],
                "selected_peaks_int": loaded_results["selected_peaks_int"],
            }
        )
    else:
        p = peaks(loaded_results)
        coords = p[p.thr_array==loaded_results["selected_thr"]].peaks_coords
        coords = coords.values[0]
        sp = pd.DataFrame({"x": coords[:, 0], "y": coords[:, 1]})

    return sp

try:
    module_path = __file__
except NameError:
    # this is probably being run from jupyter
    cwd = "."
else:
    cwd = os.path.dirname(module_path)
benchmark_results = load_results(os.path.join(
    cwd, "data", "EXP-17-BP3597_hyb1_Aldoc_pos_33.pkl"))
benchmark_peaks = get_benchmark_peaks(benchmark_results, redo_flag=False)

Plot spots detected in the benchmark as blue spots, and overlay spots from starfish as orange x’s. Starfish detects the same spot positions, but 41 fewer spots in total.

benchmark_spot_count = len(benchmark_peaks)
starfish_spot_count = len(decoded_intensities)

plt.figure(figsize=(10, 10))
plt.plot(benchmark_peaks.x, -benchmark_peaks.y, "o")
plt.plot(decoded_intensities[Axes.X.value], -decoded_intensities[Axes.Y.value], "x")

plt.legend(["Benchmark: {} spots".format(benchmark_spot_count),
            "Starfish: {} spots".format(starfish_spot_count)])
plt.title("Starfish x osmFISH Benchmark Comparison")

spot_difference = benchmark_spot_count - starfish_spot_count
print(f"Starfish finds {spot_difference} fewer spots")

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