Analysis of individual patient pathway coordination in a cross-species single-cell kidney atlas

The use of single-cell RNA sequencing in clinical and translational research is limited by the challenge of identifying cell-type-specific, targetable molecular changes in individual patients and cross-species differences. Here we created an integrated single-cell kidney atlas including over 1 million cells from 140 samples, defining more than 70 conserved cell states in human and rodent models. We developed CellSpectra, a computational tool that quantifies changes in gene expression coordination across cellular functions, which we applied to kidney and lung cancer data. This tool powers our patient-level single-cell functional profiling report, which highlights cell-type-specific changes in the coordination of pathway gene expression in individuals. Our cross-species atlas facilitates the selection of a rodent model that closely reflects the cellular and pathway-level signatures observed in patient samples, advancing the application of single-cell methodologies in clinical precision medicine. Finally, using experimental models, we demonstrate how our informatics approach can be applied for the potential selection of suitable therapeutics.