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Latch Curate v0.2.0

Latch Curate is an agentic Python framework designed to streamline the curation of public single cell data from GEO accession IDs into standardized, analysis-ready objects.

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Overview

The curation lifecycle consists of 7 concrete steps, each with a dedicated CLI command. Human validation is required at the end of each step through step-specific reports to ensure data quality and catch errors early in the process.

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Prerequisites

Before beginning:
  • Create a fresh, dedicated directory for your curation project (ideally named after your dataset)
  • Each dataset requires its own directory
  • Ensure you have the GEO accession ID for your dataset

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Curation Steps

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1. Download

Download metadata and supplementary files from GEO. 
latch-curate download run --gse-id GSE252545
Required manual steps:
  • Copy and paste the paper text into download/paper_text.txt
    • If the paper is unavailable or behind a paywall, use the abstract only
    • If no abstract exists, copy the entire text from the GEO accession page
  • Copy the paper URL to download/paper_url.txt
Outputs:
  • GSE and SRP metadata → download/study_metadata.txt
  • Supplementary files → download/supp_data/
  • User-provided paper text → download/paper_text.txt
  • User-provided paper URL → download/paper_url.txt
Optional review step: 
latch-curate download review
This checks if the total data size is within the model’s context window limits. If this fails, remove non-essential content from paper_text.txt and study_metadata.txt (e.g., citations, dense methods sections).

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2. Construct Counts

Build a counts matrix using an LLM with access to tools and terminal. The process continues until all tests pass. 
latch-curate construct-counts run
Outputs:
  • Counts matrix → construct_counts/counts.h5ad
  • Report → construct_counts/counts.html
Optional chat review: 
latch-curate construct-counts chat
Summarizes the steps taken and any errors encountered during construction.

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3. Quality Control (QC)

Performs two-pass QC:
  1. Conservative fixed filters (LLM-generated using paper and metadata)
  2. Sample-based adaptive filters (using per-sample quantile tables)
latch-curate qc run
Important: Inspect the report before proceeding. Outputs:
  • Filtered object → qc/qc.h5ad
  • Report → qc/qc_report.html
  • QC parameters → qc/qc_params.yaml
Modify QC parameters: 
latch-curate qc run --use-params
Uses parameters from qc/qc_params.yaml to re-run QC with custom values.

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4. Transform

Runs standard transformation pipeline:
  • Normalization
  • Log transformation
  • PCA
  • Batch integration
  • Neighborhood computation
  • Embeddings generation
latch-curate transform run
Important: Inspect the report before proceeding. Outputs:
  • Transformed matrix → transform/transform.h5ad
  • Report → transform/transform.html

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5. Type Cells

Computes differential gene expression between clusters and uses an LLM with controlled vocabulary to annotate cell types. 
latch-curate type-cells run
Important: Inspect the report before proceeding. Outputs:
  • Cell typed matrix → type_cells/type_cells.h5ad
  • Report → type_cells/type_cells.html
  • Annotations → type_cells/type_cells_metadata.yaml
Modify cell type annotations: 
latch-curate type-cells run --use-metadata
Uses annotations from type_cells/type_cells_metadata.yaml to re-run cell typing with corrected values.

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6. Harmonize Metadata

Uses an LLM with access to all downloaded information and ontology search tools to construct harmonized variables against controlled vocabularies. Harmonized variables (at sample resolution):
  • latch_subject_id
  • latch_condition
  • latch_disease
  • latch_tissue
  • latch_sample_site
  • latch_sequencing_platform
  • latch_organism
latch-curate harmonize-metadata run
Important: Inspect the report for sample-to-variable mapping and reasoning. Outputs:
  • Harmonized object → harmonize_metadata/harmonize_metadata.h5ad
  • Report → harmonize_metadata/harmonize_metadata.html

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7. Upload, Lint, and Convert

Final steps to complete and validate the curated object:
  1. Upload to Latch Data: 
    latch cp harmonize_metadata/harmonize_metadata.h5ad latch:///path/to/destination
    You can also upload reports and intermediate objects as needed.
  2. Run linting tests: Use the Lint Curated AnnData Workflow to validate object structure.
  3. Convert to Seurat (optional): Use the AnnData To Seurat Conversion Workflow if Seurat format is required.

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Best Practices

  • Always review reports before proceeding to the next step
  • Keep the original downloaded data intact
  • Document any manual corrections made during the process
  • Use the --use-params and --use-metadata flags to iterate on automated decisions
  • Maintain separate directories for each dataset curation

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Troubleshooting

  • If the download review fails, reduce the size of text files by removing citations and detailed methods
  • For construct-counts issues, use the chat command to understand what went wrong
  • When QC seems too stringent or lenient, modify the parameters YAML and re-run with --use-params
  • For incorrect cell type annotations, edit the metadata YAML and re-run with --use-metadata