UCell: Robust and scalable single-cell gene signature scoring

Abstract

UCell is an R package for evaluating gene signatures in single-cell datasets. UCell signature scores, based on the Mann-Whitney U statistic, are robust to dataset size and heterogeneity, and their calculation demands less computing time and memory than other available methods, enabling the processing of large datasets in a few minutes even on machines with limited computing power. UCell can be applied to any single-cell data matrix, and includes functions to directly interact with Seurat objects. The UCell package and documentation are available on GitHub at https://github.com/carmonalab/UCell.

Keywords

• Single-cell
• Gene signature
• Module scoring
• Cell type
• Gene set enrichment