Researchers from IIT Delhi have developed an algorithm that can find rare cells from a very large pool of cells in a matter of seconds.
The algorithm, Finder of Rare Entities (FiRE), assigns a rareness score to each cell that is computed based on the gene expression profile of about 20,000 genes.
Cells having scores above a certain threshold are reported as rare cells.
The new algorithm has superior sensitivity and specificity compared with existing methods.