Clustering with UMAPs#

Clustering objects can be challenging when working with many parameters, in particular when interacting with data manually. To reduce the number of parameters, dimensionality reduction techniques such as the Uniform Manifold Approximation Projection (UMAP) have been developed. In this notebook we use the technique to differentiate nuclei in an image which are mitotic from those which are not mitotic.

See also

from skimage.data import human_mitosis
from napari_segment_blobs_and_things_with_membranes import voronoi_otsu_labeling
from napari_simpleitk_image_processing import label_statistics
from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler
import numpy as np
import umap
import seaborn
import pyclesperanto_prototype as cle
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

Example data#

First, we load the example image (taken from the scikit-image examples) showing human cell nuclei.

image = cle.asarray(human_mitosis())
image
Downloading file 'data/mitosis.tif' from 'https://gitlab.com/scikit-image/data/-/raw/2cdc5ce89b334d28f06a58c9f0ca21aa6992a5ba/AS_09125_050116030001_D03f00d0.tif' to 'C:\Users\haase\AppData\Local\scikit-image\scikit-image\Cache\0.20.0'.
cle._ image
shape(512, 512)
dtypefloat32
size1024.0 kB
min7.0
max255.0
labels = cle.voronoi_otsu_labeling(image, spot_sigma=2.5, outline_sigma=0)
labels
cle._ image
shape(512, 512)
dtypeuint32
size1024.0 kB
min0.0
max320.0

Feature extraction#

We then measure properties of the nuclei such as intensity, size, shape, perimeter and moments.

nuclei_statistics = label_statistics(image, labels, 
                                     intensity=True, 
                                     size=True, 
                                     shape=True, 
                                     perimeter=True,
                                     moments=True)
nuclei_statistics.head()
label maximum mean median minimum sigma sum variance elongation feret_diameter ... number_of_pixels_on_border perimeter perimeter_on_border perimeter_on_border_ratio principal_axes0 principal_axes1 principal_axes2 principal_axes3 principal_moments0 principal_moments1
0 1 83.0 69.886364 73.359375 48.0 9.890601 3075.0 97.823996 1.858735 9.486833 ... 10 25.664982 10.0 0.389636 0.998995 -0.044825 0.044825 0.998995 1.926448 6.655680
1 2 46.0 42.125000 43.328125 38.0 2.748376 337.0 7.553571 0.000000 7.000000 ... 8 15.954349 8.0 0.501431 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 5.250000
2 3 53.0 44.916667 45.265625 38.0 4.461111 539.0 19.901515 3.609511 6.000000 ... 7 14.843629 7.0 0.471583 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 0.243056 3.166667
3 4 92.0 65.603175 65.609375 38.0 14.475273 4133.0 209.533538 1.212933 10.000000 ... 7 29.687257 7.0 0.235791 0.914511 0.404561 -0.404561 0.914511 4.227271 6.219189
4 5 59.0 46.315068 46.234375 38.0 5.065890 3381.0 25.663242 1.249507 11.401754 ... 9 34.264893 9.0 0.262660 0.363116 -0.931744 0.931744 0.363116 5.001247 7.808286

5 rows × 27 columns

# list all columns we measured
nuclei_statistics.keys()
Index(['label', 'maximum', 'mean', 'median', 'minimum', 'sigma', 'sum',
       'variance', 'elongation', 'feret_diameter', 'flatness', 'roundness',
       'equivalent_ellipsoid_diameter_0', 'equivalent_ellipsoid_diameter_1',
       'equivalent_spherical_perimeter', 'equivalent_spherical_radius',
       'number_of_pixels', 'number_of_pixels_on_border', 'perimeter',
       'perimeter_on_border', 'perimeter_on_border_ratio', 'principal_axes0',
       'principal_axes1', 'principal_axes2', 'principal_axes3',
       'principal_moments0', 'principal_moments1'],
      dtype='object')

Feature selection#

In the image it is obvious that dividing nuclei are brighter than others. Furthermore, they apper elongated. Thus, we select intensity and shape-based features.

selected_table = nuclei_statistics[
    [
        "mean",
        "variance",
        "elongation",
    ]
]

selected_statistics = selected_table.values

Standard scaling#

We then scale those measurements so that intensity levels and distances can be interpreted in a balanced way (Read more).

scaled_statistics = StandardScaler().fit_transform(selected_statistics)

type(scaled_statistics), scaled_statistics.shape
(numpy.ndarray, (320, 3))

Plotting#

For demonstration purposes, we plot the three selected features against each other.

def hide_current_axis(*args, **kwds):
    plt.gca().set_visible(False)

g = seaborn.PairGrid(selected_table)
g.map(seaborn.scatterplot)
<seaborn.axisgrid.PairGrid at 0x240b01e9c40>
../_images/436ad93dd3e8a4f79a687c69a00ee08da589fc93aeb8ded27ad8fd95386fed44.png

From these plots, one could presume that datapoints with high mean intensity, variance and/or elongation are mitotic. However, there is no clear group of data points that are characteristically different from others, which could be easily differentiated.

Dimensionality reduction#

To demonstrate the UMAP algorithm, we now reduce these three dimensions to two.

reducer = umap.UMAP()
embedding = reducer.fit_transform(scaled_statistics)
type(embedding), embedding.shape
(numpy.ndarray, (320, 2))
seaborn.scatterplot(x=embedding[:, 0], 
                    y=embedding[:, 1])
<AxesSubplot: >
../_images/8a71619bdc701615a02e9d6c6f035f3a8273676cfb89e1026ed95b754032f675.png

A note on repeatability#

The algorithm behind the UMAP is partially a non-deterministic. Thus, if you run the same code twice, the result might look slightly different.

reducer = umap.UMAP()
embedding2 = reducer.fit_transform(scaled_statistics)

seaborn.scatterplot(x=embedding2[:, 0], 
                    y=embedding2[:, 1])
<AxesSubplot: >
../_images/69ad30fb43b1e6e6c994962827b5b70ff8805bd4039033a071146062089346ef.png
reducer = umap.UMAP()
embedding2 = reducer.fit_transform(scaled_statistics)

seaborn.scatterplot(x=embedding2[:, 0], 
                    y=embedding2[:, 1])
<AxesSubplot: >
../_images/8c953c05dd0d397f71032670c59dd73f15de7323ed9b6a27b8a59e2d9923f23d.png

This limitation can be circumvented by providing a non-random seed random_state. However, it does not solve the general limitation. If our input data is slightly different, e.g. coming from a different image showing different cells, we may not receive the same UMAP result.

reducer = umap.UMAP(random_state=42)
embedding3 = reducer.fit_transform(scaled_statistics)

seaborn.scatterplot(x=embedding3[:, 0], 
                    y=embedding3[:, 1])
<AxesSubplot: >
../_images/36e1037604bdea0390c95dbebfb0d1cc8874c51bda436933f753eb8fd16c34f9.png
reducer = umap.UMAP(random_state=42)
embedding4 = reducer.fit_transform(scaled_statistics)

seaborn.scatterplot(x=embedding4[:, 0], 
                    y=embedding4[:, 1])
<AxesSubplot: >
../_images/36e1037604bdea0390c95dbebfb0d1cc8874c51bda436933f753eb8fd16c34f9.png
nuclei_statistics["UMAP1"] = embedding4[:, 0]
nuclei_statistics["UMAP2"] = embedding4[:, 1]

Manual clustering#

We can mark reagions in the UMAP plot interactively (e.g. using the napari-clusters-plotter). To mimik this in a notebook, we set a manual threshold on a single UMAP axis to mark a region of data points we would like to investigate further. As mentioned above, as the UMAP result may not be 100% repeatable, we might need to adapt this threshold after generating a new UMAP on a different dataset.

def manual_threshold(x):
    if x < 9:
        return 1
    else:
        return 2
    
nuclei_statistics["MANUAL_CLUSTER_ID"] = [
    manual_threshold(x) 
    for x in nuclei_statistics["UMAP1"]
]
seaborn.scatterplot(
    x=nuclei_statistics["UMAP1"],
    y=nuclei_statistics["UMAP2"],
    hue=nuclei_statistics["MANUAL_CLUSTER_ID"],
)
<AxesSubplot: xlabel='UMAP1', ylabel='UMAP2'>
../_images/5e76ddced09708f3fb245f82a29aebc19496baf05a149ec47450c499dd4988e9.png

Cluster visualization in image space#

# put a 0 for background in front
new_values = [0] + nuclei_statistics["MANUAL_CLUSTER_ID"].tolist()

print(new_values[:10])
[0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1]
cluster_id_image = cle.replace_intensities(labels, new_values)
cle.imshow(cluster_id_image, labels=True)
../_images/ef8b6341414a6a0bfaac7755c4c75dd1dc4b32e88b4475bb5b73cda82e394fd4.png
label_edges = cle.detect_label_edges(labels)
coloured_label_edges = label_edges * cluster_id_image

def show_crop(x=0, y=0, size=100):
    fig, axs = plt.subplots(1,3, figsize=(10,10))
    
    cle.imshow(image[x:x+size, y:y+size], plot=axs[0], 
               min_display_intensity=0,
               max_display_intensity=255)
    
    cle.imshow(cluster_id_image[x:x+size, y:y+size], labels=True, plot=axs[1], 
               min_display_intensity=0,
               max_display_intensity=3)

    cle.imshow(image[x:x+size, y:y+size], continue_drawing=True, plot=axs[2], 
               min_display_intensity=0,
               max_display_intensity=255)
    cle.imshow(coloured_label_edges[x:x+size, y:y+size], labels=True, alpha=0.5, 
               min_display_intensity=0,
               max_display_intensity=3,
                  plot=axs[2])
    
    axs[0].set_title("Image crop")
    axs[1].set_title("Cluster")
    axs[2].set_title("Overlay")
    

show_crop()
show_crop(400, 0)
show_crop(0, 400)
../_images/de5372ab76589e3511486579a7fac7367fcacd143ae774f24d86107cfe04f816.png ../_images/5a792b20b95c174752d24173dc13348aa5875d6a8175b83b61c1730c960e2f8f.png ../_images/2ce939c12d3e4fb1e4fd8e1d1b3afe44b0a8679eb42a1e882710fa16e7b254fb.png

Feature selection#

When drawing UMAPs, it matters which parameters are selected. The procedure above demonstrates that it is possible to produce a UMAP and select a region in it which represents cells with a given phenontype. When choosing wrong parameters, a UMAP can still be generated but may not allow differentiating phenotypes. To demonstrate this, we take the result from the manual clustering step above as ground-truth for the next demonstration. We draw a UMAP from parameters which are supposedly not useful for differentiating phenotypes. In this UMAP, we will color the objects’s manual cluster ID. Principal moments and axes are describing how cells are oriented in space. The phenotype mitotic vs. non-mitotic should not be related with on those parameters.

selected_statistics2 = nuclei_statistics[
    [
        "principal_moments0",
        "principal_moments1",
        "principal_axes0",
        "principal_axes1",
        "principal_axes2",
        "principal_axes3",
    ]
].values

scaled_statistics2 = StandardScaler().fit_transform(selected_statistics2)

type(scaled_statistics2), scaled_statistics2.shape
(numpy.ndarray, (320, 6))
reducer = umap.UMAP()
embedding5 = reducer.fit_transform(scaled_statistics2)

seaborn.scatterplot(embedding5[:, 0], embedding5[:, 1], 
                    hue=nuclei_statistics["MANUAL_CLUSTER_ID"])
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TypeError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[22], line 4
      1 reducer = umap.UMAP()
      2 embedding5 = reducer.fit_transform(scaled_statistics2)
----> 4 seaborn.scatterplot(embedding5[:, 0], embedding5[:, 1], 
      5                     hue=nuclei_statistics["MANUAL_CLUSTER_ID"])

TypeError: scatterplot() takes from 0 to 1 positional arguments but 2 positional arguments (and 1 keyword-only argument) were given

Thus, when experimenting with dimensionality reduction, it is always useful to have some annotasted datasets available. Without annotations and without the possibility to mark regions in the a UMAP, it may be hard to interpret these plots.

selected_statistics3 = nuclei_statistics[
    [
        "label",
        "minimum"
    ]
].values

scaled_statistics3 = StandardScaler().fit_transform(selected_statistics3)

type(scaled_statistics3), scaled_statistics3.shape

UMAPs of random and non-informative measurements#

Our measurement table above also contains columns which may not at all be related to the phenotype. The column label is a subsequent enumeration of all object. Assuming the objects are enumerated in random order makes this effectively a random number. The used segmentation algorithm uses a thresholding technique under the hood. Thus, the minimum intensity of all segmented objects is presumably close to this threshold. This leads to the column minimum containing almost constant values with some random variation related to noise in the image. If we use such columns to generate a UMAP from, the algorithm will generate a snake-like arrangement of data points.

reducer = umap.UMAP()
embedding6 = reducer.fit_transform(scaled_statistics3)

seaborn.scatterplot(embedding6[:, 0], embedding6[:, 1], 
                    hue=nuclei_statistics["MANUAL_CLUSTER_ID"])

Interpreting this UMAP may not lead to reasonable results. Just as comparison, we draw the plot of the two selected columns.

seaborn.scatterplot(x=nuclei_statistics["label"], 
                    y=nuclei_statistics["minimum"], 
                    hue=nuclei_statistics["MANUAL_CLUSTER_ID"])