Learning to estimate sample-specific transcriptional networks for 7,000 tumors.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

Cancers are shaped by somatic mutations, microenvironment, and patient background, each altering gene expression and regulation in complex ways, resulting in heterogeneous cellular states and dynamics. Inferring gene regulatory networks (GRNs) from expression data can help characterize this regulation-driven heterogeneity, but network inference requires many statistical samples, limiting GRNs to cluster-level analyses that ignore intracluster heterogeneity. We propose to move beyond coarse analyses of predefined subgroups by using contextualized learning, a multitask learning paradigm that uses multiview contexts including phenotypic, molecular, and environmental information to infer personalized models. With sample-specific contexts, contextualization enables sample-specific models and even generalizes at test time to predict network models for entirely unseen contexts. We unify three network model classes (Correlation, Markov, and Neighborhood Selection) and estimate context-specific GRNs for 7,997 tumors across 25 tumor types, using copy number and driver mutation profiles, tumor microenvironment, and patient demographics as model context. Our generative modeling approach allows us to predict GRNs for unseen tumor types based on a pan-cancer model of how somatic mutations affect gene regulation. Finally, contextualized networks enable GRN-based precision oncology by providing a structured view of expression dynamics at sample-specific resolution, explaining known biomarkers in terms of network-mediated effects and leading to subtypings that improve survival prognosis. We provide a SKLearn-style Python package for learning and analyzing contextualized models, as well as interactive plotting tools for pan-cancer data exploration at .

Year of Publication
2025
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume
122
Issue
21
Pages
e2411930122
Date Published
05/2025
ISSN
1091-6490
DOI
10.1073/pnas.2411930122
PubMed ID
40408406
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