Statistical Analysis of Cell-Based Assays

Why the level of aggregation matters

In a microscopy-based cell assay each treatment condition is measured across several wells, and each well holds many cells. Cells within a well are not independent: they share staining, focus and exposure. Treating every cell as an independent replicate inflates the sample size and, with it, the confidence of the answer.

cellreportR supports both resolutions and asks you to say which one you mean:

• Cell-level tests treat each cell as a data point. Use them for distributional questions — is there a subpopulation shift, does a marker separate two conditions.
• Replicate-level tests aggregate cells to one number per well and test wells. Use them for the primary inference about whether a compound has an effect.

Run both, report the effect size with its interval at the replicate level, and let the difference between the two be visible rather than assumed.

A worked example

exp <- cr_example_experiment(seed = 2, n_cells_per_well = 60)

res <- cr_test(exp,
               channel   = "marker_1",
               treatment = "CompoundA_high",
               control   = "Untreated",
               test      = "mann_whitney",
               level     = "both")

res$cell_level
#> # A tibble: 1 × 8
#>   level test         statistic p_value   n_x   n_y median_x median_y
#>   <chr> <chr>            <dbl>   <dbl> <int> <int>    <dbl>    <dbl>
#> 1 cell  mann_whitney    904417       0   969   941    4143.     553.
res$rep_level
#> # A tibble: 1 × 8
#>   level     test         statistic    p_value   n_x   n_y median_x median_y
#>   <chr>     <chr>            <dbl>      <dbl> <int> <int>    <dbl>    <dbl>
#> 1 replicate mann_whitney       256 0.00000154    16    16    4175.     550.

Same data, same contrast. The cell-level test is run on nearly two thousand observations and the replicate-level test on thirty-two, and the p-values differ by orders of magnitude. The extra cells did not add independent information; they only made the arithmetic behave as though they had.

cr_test() also returns effect sizes, computed on the cells:

res$effect_sizes
#> # A tibble: 4 × 5
#>   method        estimate ci_low ci_high magnitude
#>   <chr>            <dbl>  <dbl>   <dbl> <chr>    
#> 1 cohens_d          6.59   4.71    8.48 large    
#> 2 hedges_g          6.43   4.59    8.26 large    
#> 3 cliffs_delta      1     NA      NA    large    
#> 4 rank_biserial     1     NA      NA    large

Those intervals are cell-level intervals whatever level was asked for, so they are narrow for exactly the reason the cell-level p-value is small. For an interval that respects the unit of replication, use cr_effect_grid() with unit set — vignette("end-to-end") puts the two side by side and measures the gap.

Effect size interpretation

cr_effect_size() computes Cohen’s d, Hedges’ g, Cliff’s delta, rank-biserial correlation and Glass’s delta, each with a confidence interval. The verbal magnitude attached to an estimate uses the conventional benchmarks:

set.seed(1)
cr_effect_size(rnorm(100, 1), rnorm(100, 0))
#> # A tibble: 5 × 5
#>   method        estimate ci_low ci_high magnitude
#>   <chr>            <dbl>  <dbl>   <dbl> <chr>    
#> 1 cohens_d         1.23   0.930   1.54  large    
#> 2 hedges_g         1.23   0.927   1.53  large    
#> 3 cliffs_delta     0.616  0.481   0.723 large    
#> 4 rank_biserial    0.616  0.481   0.723 large    
#> 5 glass_delta      1.20   0.872   1.52  large

Bootstrap intervals are available where the analytic ones do not apply:

set.seed(1)
cr_effect_size(rnorm(60, 0.8), rnorm(60, 0),
               method = "cliffs_delta",
               ci_method = "bootstrap", n_boot = 200, seed = 1)
#> # A tibble: 1 × 5
#>   method       estimate ci_low ci_high magnitude
#>   <chr>           <dbl>  <dbl>   <dbl> <chr>    
#> 1 cliffs_delta    0.495  0.356   0.649 large

ROC and AUC for discriminability

“Does this marker tell a treated cell from a control cell?” is a different question from “did the group means move”, and it has a different answer. Fit a univariate logistic regression and read the area under the curve:

logit <- cr_logistic(exp, "marker_1", "CompoundA_high", "Untreated")
cr_auc(logit)
#> # A tibble: 1 × 4
#>     auc ci_low ci_high method
#>   <dbl>  <dbl>   <dbl> <chr> 
#> 1 0.992  0.989   0.995 delong
cr_plot_roc(logit)

cr_confusion_matrix(logit, threshold = 0.5)
#> # A tibble: 1 × 10
#>   threshold sensitivity specificity   ppv   npv accuracy    tp    tn    fp    fn
#>       <dbl>       <dbl>       <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>    <dbl> <int> <int> <int> <int>
#> 1       0.5       0.951       0.967 0.967 0.951    0.959   922   910    31    47

Multiple testing

cr_test_all() runs every treatment level against the control and reports the adjustments alongside the unadjusted p-value, never in place of it:

all_res <- cr_test_all(exp, "marker_1", "Untreated", level = "replicate")
attr(all_res, "summary")[, c("treatment", "log2_fc", "p_value",
                             "p_bonferroni", "p_BH", "interpretation")]
#> # A tibble: 5 × 6
#>   treatment      log2_fc    p_value p_bonferroni       p_BH interpretation
#>   <chr>            <dbl>      <dbl>        <dbl>      <dbl> <chr>         
#> 1 PosControl       3.10  0.00000154   0.00000772 0.00000386 strong        
#> 2 CompoundA_low    0.916 0.0000312    0.000156   0.0000520  strong        
#> 3 CompoundA_high   2.92  0.00000154   0.00000772 0.00000386 strong        
#> 4 CompoundB        0.314 0.109        0.546      0.109      no evidence   
#> 5 CompoundC        0.578 0.0000433    0.000216   0.0000541  moderate

The interpretation column combines the adjusted p-value with the effect size: a contrast is "weak", "moderate" or "strong" only when p_adj < 0.05, and "no evidence" otherwise.

Power and sample size

cr_power_analysis() simulates the two-sample t-test that a replicate-level analysis actually runs: n_replicates replicate means per arm, each the average of n_cells_per_rep draws, tested against each other.

cr_power_analysis(effect_size     = 0.3,
                  n_replicates    = 4,
                  n_cells_per_rep = 20,
                  n_sim           = 200,
                  seed            = 1)
#> # A tibble: 1 × 5
#>   effect_size n_replicates n_cells_per_rep alpha power
#>         <dbl>        <dbl>           <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
#> 1         0.3            4              20  0.05 0.355

Read the number for what the simulation models. The only source of spread between replicate means here is the averaging itself, so power rises steeply with n_cells_per_rep. Real units also differ from one another for reasons that more cells cannot average away — staining, focus, seeding density — and that component is not in this model. This is an idealized independent-cell scenario, not a formal upper bound or a validated prediction of laboratory power. A design decision needs an explicit between-unit variance model or an effect and variance estimated at the independent experimental-unit level.

For sizing a follow-up study from effects you have actually observed rather than from an assumed one, use cr_power_grid(), which solves from the confidence bound nearer the null and so inherits the between-unit variability of the data it was given — see vignette("end-to-end").

Where this fits

• vignette("getting-started") — the short path on one plate.
• vignette("end-to-end") — the same choice of level made across a whole screen, with cr_effect_grid() and cr_compare_levels() quantifying the gap between the two.