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bioRxiv · 10.64898/2026.08.04.742537

pysigscore: gene signatures scoring across bulk and single-cell transcriptomics

Giacomello, T.·Mazzara, S.·Abbruzzese, G.·Barberis, A.·tangherloni, a.·Buffa, F. M.
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Abstract

SummaryHigh-throughput transcriptomics has made gene signatures central to interpreting gene expression data, with applications in diagnosis, prognosis, and prediction. Quantifying signature activity and assessing its robustness remain challenging because scoring methods primarily rely on various assumptions, and no single approach is universally optimal. Here, we present pysigscore, a Python framework for gene set scoring in bulk and single-cell RNA-seq data. pysigscore integrates 18 built-in scoring methods with a fully customisable scorer, allowing users to define and benchmark new scoring functions. It also provides reliability analyses, including p-value estimation and leave-one-out experiments, to assess the significance of scores and gene-level contributions. We validated pysigscore on the CCLE, TCGA, and PBMC datasets, recovering the expected enrichment in liver, hypoxia, inflammatory, and cell-cycle signatures. Availability and ImplementationSource code is available at https://github.com/bioinformatics-hub/pysigscore. Contact: tommaso.giacomello@phd.unibocconi.it, francesca.buffa@unibocconi.it Supplementary informationSupplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

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Giacomello, T., Mazzara, S., Abbruzzese, G., Barberis, A., tangherloni, a., Buffa, F. M.. 2026-08-09. pysigscore: gene signatures scoring across bulk and single-cell transcriptomics. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.08.04.742537

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