{
  "abstract": "Label-free morphology captures cellular responses, but its ability to substitute for targeted cellular measurements depends on the intended use. We assess measurement sufficiency using nearly 10 million paired phase-reporter observations across 1,000 gene knockouts, 52 fluorescent reporters and 73 A549 screens. Ten predictors differed in recovery across held-out fields, genes and screens. Same-cell pairing controls identified reporter-state information beyond perturbation averages and measured covariates. Perturbation ranking often persisted despite reduced variation in predicted response magnitudes. Predictions of held-out knockout responses retained a median 79% of the strongest hits, whereas functional-term retention varied. Atlas-derived criteria identified 30 quantitative and 7 ranking proxies for a fixed ensemble, with reference reproducibility constraining interpretation. In independent primary-hepatocyte data, brightfield predictions prioritized 10 of the 11 compounds with the largest measured metabolic-activity losses among 217 held-out compounds. Measurement sufficiency therefore depends on target, predictor, context and scientific task, beyond predictive correlation alone.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Shenzhen Loop Area Institute"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 15,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "M. Li"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. Zhu"
    },
    {
      "name": "B. Li"
    },
    {
      "name": "C. Zhang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Z. Tang"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. Wang"
    },
    {
      "name": "W. Xing"
    },
    {
      "name": "B. Zhang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "J. Xu"
    },
    {
      "name": "L. Meng"
    },
    {
      "name": "B. Zhang"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. Chen"
    },
    {
      "name": "R. Zhang"
    },
    {
      "name": "L. Zhang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "J. Xu"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/amf9pbxa11sfa.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.09.22.753654",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.22.753654v1.full",
  "id": "amf9pbxa11sfa",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.22.753654v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "bioinformatics"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1304|Cell Image Analysis Techniques"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214611490",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.22.753654v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-22",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/amf9pbxa11sfa.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:24:58Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.09.22.753654",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.22.753654v2"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:bioinformatics",
      "subfield": "bioinformatics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "When label-free morphology is sufficient for targeted cellular measurements",
  "title_text": "When label-free morphology is sufficient for targeted cellular measurements",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:27:39Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/amf9pbxa11sfa",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}