# FlexScience

- **Event:** [Built with Claude: Life Sciences](https://cerebralvalley.ai/e/built-with-claude-life-sciences)
- **When:** Jul 7 at 12:00 PM – Jul 14 at 12:00 AM (EDT)
- **Where:** Online
- **Team:** [Tianxiang Dai](https://cerebralvalley.ai/u/txdai)
- **GitHub:** https://github.com/txdai/Perturbation-PSF
- **Demo video:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0H_EdXbDcA
- **Gallery:** https://cerebralvalley.ai/e/built-with-claude-life-sciences/hackathon/gallery
- **Page:** https://cerebralvalley.ai/e/built-with-claude-life-sciences/hackathon/gallery/21

Spatial perturbation transcriptomics aims to measure how a genetically edited cell affects surrounding tissue. I investigated whether these effects form a point-spread-function-like spatial response, bringing a mathematical idea from electrical engineering into an unfamiliar biomedical field.
Using a public mouse-brain Spatial Perturb-seq dataset containing 229,775 cells, I found a consequential replication problem. Treating 24,453–31,189 source-recipient pairs as independent produced 16 of 20 nominal program-level hits. Keeping the biological comparisons and point estimates fixed, but computing uncertainty at the 78 or 101 independent perturbation and control sources, increased standard errors by a median of 5.5× and eliminated every hit: 0/20.
Wild-cluster bootstrap, source-label permutation, equal-source weighting, non-overlap analysis, alternative adjustments, and leave-one-mouse-out checks agreed. Two Lrrk2 contrasts remain power-limited, method-dependent leads rather than findings.
I packaged the central check as a reusable command-line audit that produces naive, source-aware, wild-bootstrap, and equal-source results from a source-recipient table. This matters because neighbour-level pseudoreplication can create false confidence across spatial screens. The resulting design guidance is concrete: count independent sources, balance them across animals, and power experiments at the source level.
The broader demonstration is that Claude can help an outsider enter a new research field and contribute rigorously without lowering the standard of evidence.

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Markdown version of https://cerebralvalley.ai/e/built-with-claude-life-sciences/hackathon/gallery/21. Site index for agents: https://cerebralvalley.ai/llms.txt · full text: https://cerebralvalley.ai/llms-full.txt