Curate AnnData based on the CELLxGENE schema

This guide shows how to curate an AnnData object with the help of laminlabs/cellxgene against the CELLxGENE schema v5.1.0.

Load your instance where you want to register the curated AnnData object:

# pip install 'lamindb[bionty,jupyter]' cellxgene-lamin
# cellxgene-schema has pinned dependencies. Therefore we recommend installing it into a separate environment using `uv` or `pipx`
# uv tool install cellxgene-schema==5.1.0
!lamin init --storage ./test-cellxgene-curate --modules bionty
Hide code cell output 
→ initialized lamindb: testuser1/test-cellxgene-curate

import lamindb as ln
import bionty as bt


def get_semi_curated_dataset():
    adata = ln.core.datasets.anndata_human_immune_cells()
    adata.obs["sex_ontology_term_id"] = "PATO:0000384"
    adata.obs["organism"] = "human"
    adata.obs["sex"] = "unknown"
    # create some typos in the metadata
    adata.obs["tissue"] = adata.obs["tissue"].cat.rename_categories({"lung": "lungg"})
    # new donor ids
    adata.obs["donor"] = adata.obs["donor"].astype(str) + "-1"
    # drop animal cell
    adata = adata[adata.obs["cell_type"] != "animal cell", :]
    # remove columns that are reserved in the cellxgene schema
    adata.var.drop(columns=["feature_reference", "feature_biotype"], inplace=True)
    adata.raw.var.drop(
        columns=["feature_name", "feature_reference", "feature_biotype"], inplace=True
    )
    return adata

→ connected lamindb: testuser1/test-cellxgene-curate

Let’s start with an AnnData object that we’d like to inspect and curate. We are writing it to disk to run CZI’s cellxgene-schema CLI tool which verifies whether an on-disk h5ad dataset adheres to the cellxgene schema.

adata = get_semi_curated_dataset()
adata.write_h5ad("anndata_human_immune_cells.h5ad")
adata
Hide code cell output 
AnnData object with n_obs × n_vars = 1626 × 36503
    obs: 'donor', 'tissue', 'cell_type', 'assay', 'sex_ontology_term_id', 'organism', 'sex'
    var: 'feature_is_filtered'
    uns: 'default_embedding'
    obsm: 'X_umap'

Initially, the cellxgene-schema validator of CZI does not pass and we need to curate the dataset.

!MPLBACKEND=agg uvx cellxgene-schema validate anndata_human_immune_cells.h5ad || exit 1
Hide code cell output 
Loading dependencies

Loading validator modules

Starting validation...

Unable to open 'anndata_human_immune_cells.h5ad' with AnnData

Validate and curate metadata

We create a Curate object that references the AnnData object. During instantiation, any :class:~lamindb.Feature records are saved.

curator = ln.curators.CellxGeneAnnDataCatManager(
    adata, organism="human", schema_version="5.1.0"
)
Hide code cell output 
→ Creating control labels in the CellxGene schema.

! record with similar name exists! did you mean to load it?
uid name is_type description reference reference_type space_id type_id run_id created_at created_by_id _aux _branch_code
id
1 lOxH289J TissueType True From CellxGene schema. Is "tissue", "organoid"... None None 1 None None 2025-03-20 07:49:51.457000+00:00 1 None 1 
! record with similar name exists! did you mean to load it?
uid name is_type description reference reference_type space_id type_id run_id created_at created_by_id _aux _branch_code
id
4 r8IcV6Hh cell culture False From CellxGene schema. None None 1 1 None 2025-03-20 07:49:51.483000+00:00 1 None 1 
✓ added 5 records with Feature.name for "columns": 'assay', 'cell_type', 'sex_ontology_term_id', 'tissue', 'organism'

validated = curator.validate()

✗ missing required obs columns 'development_stage', 'disease', 'donor_id', 'self_reported_ethnicity', 'suspension_type', 'tissue_type'
    → consider initializing a Curate object with `defaults=cxg.CellxGeneAnnDataCatManager.cxg_categoricals_defaults` to automatically add these columns with default values

Let’s fix the “donor_id” column name:

adata.obs.rename(columns={"donor": "donor_id"}, inplace=True)

For the missing columns, we can pass default values suggested from CELLxGENE which will automatically add them to the AnnData object:

ln.curators.CellxGeneAnnDataCatManager.cxg_categoricals_defaults
Hide code cell output 
{'cell_type': 'unknown',
 'development_stage': 'unknown',
 'disease': 'normal',
 'donor_id': 'unknown',
 'self_reported_ethnicity': 'unknown',
 'sex': 'unknown',
 'suspension_type': 'cell',
 'tissue_type': 'tissue'}

Note

CELLxGENE requires columns tissue, organism, and assay to have existing values from the ontologies. Therefore, these columns need to be added and populated manually.

curator = ln.curators.CellxGeneAnnDataCatManager(
    adata,
    defaults=ln.curators.CellxGeneAnnDataCatManager.cxg_categoricals_defaults,
    organism="human",
    schema_version="5.1.0",
)
Hide code cell output 
→ added default value 'unknown' to the adata.obs['development_stage']

→ added default value 'normal' to the adata.obs['disease']

→ added default value 'unknown' to the adata.obs['self_reported_ethnicity']

→ added default value 'cell' to the adata.obs['suspension_type']

→ added default value 'tissue' to the adata.obs['tissue_type']

✓ added 5 records with Feature.name for "columns": 'development_stage', 'disease', 'self_reported_ethnicity', 'suspension_type', 'tissue_type'

validated = curator.validate()
validated
Hide code cell output 
✓ created 1 Organism record from Bionty matching name: 'human'

• saving validated records of 'var_index'

✓ added 36390 records from public with Gene.ensembl_gene_id for "var_index": 'ENSG00000243485', 'ENSG00000237613', 'ENSG00000186092', 'ENSG00000238009', 'ENSG00000239945', 'ENSG00000239906', 'ENSG00000241860', 'ENSG00000241599', 'ENSG00000286448', 'ENSG00000236601', 'ENSG00000284733', 'ENSG00000235146', 'ENSG00000284662', 'ENSG00000229905', 'ENSG00000237491', 'ENSG00000177757', 'ENSG00000228794', 'ENSG00000225880', 'ENSG00000230368', 'ENSG00000272438', ...

• mapping "var_index" on Gene.ensembl_gene_id

!   113 terms are not validated: 'ENSG00000269933', 'ENSG00000261737', 'ENSG00000259834', 'ENSG00000256374', 'ENSG00000263464', 'ENSG00000203812', 'ENSG00000272196', 'ENSG00000272880', 'ENSG00000270188', 'ENSG00000287116', 'ENSG00000237133', 'ENSG00000224739', 'ENSG00000227902', 'ENSG00000239467', 'ENSG00000272551', 'ENSG00000280374', 'ENSG00000236886', 'ENSG00000229352', 'ENSG00000286601', 'ENSG00000227021', ...
    → fix typos, remove non-existent values, or save terms via .add_new_from_var_index()

• saving validated records of 'assay'

✓ added 3 records from public with ExperimentalFactor.name for "assay": '10x 5' v2', '10x 3' v3', '10x 5' v1'

• saving validated records of 'cell_type'

✓ added 31 records from public with CellType.name for "cell_type": 'germinal center B cell', 'CD16-positive, CD56-dim natural killer cell, human', 'conventional dendritic cell', 'plasmacytoid dendritic cell', 'effector memory CD8-positive, alpha-beta T cell, terminally differentiated', 'T follicular helper cell', 'naive B cell', 'group 3 innate lymphoid cell', 'CD4-positive helper T cell', 'progenitor cell', 'classical monocyte', 'memory B cell', 'alpha-beta T cell', 'alveolar macrophage', 'gamma-delta T cell', 'megakaryocyte', 'effector memory CD4-positive, alpha-beta T cell', 'macrophage', 'non-classical monocyte', 'regulatory T cell', ...

• saving validated records of 'sex_ontology_term_id'

✓ added 1 record from public with Phenotype.ontology_id for "sex_ontology_term_id": 'PATO:0000384'

• saving validated records of 'tissue'

✓ added 16 records from public with Tissue.name for "tissue": 'sigmoid colon', 'caecum', 'jejunal epithelium', 'omentum', 'thymus', 'bone marrow', 'spleen', 'skeletal muscle tissue', 'lamina propria', 'ileum', 'liver', 'transverse colon', 'duodenum', 'thoracic lymph node', 'mesenteric lymph node', 'blood'

✓ "assay" is validated against ExperimentalFactor.name

✓ "cell_type" is validated against CellType.name

✓ "development_stage" is validated against DevelopmentalStage.name

✓ "disease" is validated against Disease.name

✓ "self_reported_ethnicity" is validated against Ethnicity.name

✓ "sex_ontology_term_id" is validated against Phenotype.ontology_id

✓ "suspension_type" is validated against ULabel.name

• mapping "tissue" on Tissue.name

!   1 term is not validated: 'lungg'
    → fix typos, remove non-existent values, or save terms via .add_new_from("tissue")

✓ "tissue_type" is validated against ULabel.name

✓ "organism" is validated against Organism.name

False

Remove unvalidated values

We remove all unvalidated genes. These genes may exist in a different release of ensembl but are not valid for the ensembl version of cellxgene schema 5.0.0 (ensembl release 110).

curator.non_validated
Hide code cell output 
{'tissue': ['lungg'],
 'var_index': ['ENSG00000269933',
  'ENSG00000261737',
  'ENSG00000259834',
  'ENSG00000256374',
  'ENSG00000263464',
  'ENSG00000203812',
  'ENSG00000272196',
  'ENSG00000272880',
  'ENSG00000270188',
  'ENSG00000287116',
  'ENSG00000237133',
  'ENSG00000224739',
  'ENSG00000227902',
  'ENSG00000239467',
  'ENSG00000272551',
  'ENSG00000280374',
  'ENSG00000236886',
  'ENSG00000229352',
  'ENSG00000286601',
  'ENSG00000227021',
  'ENSG00000259855',
  'ENSG00000273301',
  'ENSG00000271870',
  'ENSG00000237838',
  'ENSG00000286996',
  'ENSG00000269028',
  'ENSG00000286699',
  'ENSG00000273370',
  'ENSG00000261490',
  'ENSG00000272567',
  'ENSG00000270394',
  'ENSG00000272370',
  'ENSG00000272354',
  'ENSG00000251044',
  'ENSG00000272040',
  'ENSG00000182230',
  'ENSG00000204092',
  'ENSG00000261068',
  'ENSG00000236740',
  'ENSG00000236996',
  'ENSG00000232295',
  'ENSG00000271734',
  'ENSG00000236673',
  'ENSG00000227220',
  'ENSG00000236166',
  'ENSG00000112096',
  'ENSG00000285162',
  'ENSG00000286228',
  'ENSG00000237513',
  'ENSG00000285106',
  'ENSG00000226380',
  'ENSG00000270672',
  'ENSG00000225932',
  'ENSG00000244693',
  'ENSG00000268955',
  'ENSG00000272267',
  'ENSG00000253878',
  'ENSG00000259820',
  'ENSG00000226403',
  'ENSG00000233776',
  'ENSG00000269900',
  'ENSG00000261534',
  'ENSG00000237548',
  'ENSG00000239665',
  'ENSG00000256892',
  'ENSG00000249860',
  'ENSG00000271409',
  'ENSG00000224745',
  'ENSG00000261438',
  'ENSG00000231575',
  'ENSG00000260461',
  'ENSG00000255823',
  'ENSG00000254740',
  'ENSG00000254561',
  'ENSG00000282080',
  'ENSG00000256427',
  'ENSG00000287388',
  'ENSG00000276814',
  'ENSG00000280710',
  'ENSG00000215271',
  'ENSG00000258414',
  'ENSG00000258808',
  'ENSG00000277050',
  'ENSG00000273888',
  'ENSG00000258861',
  'ENSG00000259444',
  'ENSG00000244952',
  'ENSG00000273923',
  'ENSG00000262668',
  'ENSG00000232196',
  'ENSG00000256618',
  'ENSG00000221995',
  'ENSG00000226377',
  'ENSG00000273576',
  'ENSG00000267637',
  'ENSG00000282965',
  'ENSG00000273837',
  'ENSG00000286949',
  'ENSG00000256222',
  'ENSG00000280095',
  'ENSG00000278927',
  'ENSG00000278955',
  'ENSG00000277352',
  'ENSG00000239446',
  'ENSG00000256045',
  'ENSG00000228906',
  'ENSG00000228139',
  'ENSG00000261773',
  'ENSG00000278198',
  'ENSG00000273496',
  'ENSG00000277666',
  'ENSG00000278782',
  'ENSG00000277761']}

adata = adata[:, ~adata.var.index.isin(curator.non_validated["var_index"])].copy()
if adata.raw is not None:
    raw_data = adata.raw.to_adata()
    raw_data = raw_data[
        :, ~raw_data.var_names.isin(curator.non_validated["var_index"])
    ].copy()
    adata.raw = raw_data

curator = ln.curators.CellxGeneAnnDataCatManager(
    adata, organism="human", schema_version="5.1.0"
)

Register new metadata labels

Following the suggestions above to register genes and labels that aren’t present in the current instance:

(Note that our instance is rather empty. Once you filled up the registries, registering new labels won’t be frequently needed)

An error is shown for the tissue label “lungg”, which is a typo, should be “lung”. Let’s fix it:

tissues = curator.lookup(public=True).tissue
tissues.lung
Hide code cell output 
Tissue(ontology_id='UBERON:0002048', name='lung', definition='Respiration Organ That Develops As An Outpocketing Of The Esophagus.', synonyms='pulmo', parents=array(['UBERON:0015212', 'UBERON:0004119', 'UBERON:0005178',
       'UBERON:0000171'], dtype=object))

adata.obs["tissue"] = adata.obs["tissue"].cat.rename_categories(
    {"lungg": tissues.lung.name}
)

Let’s validate the object again:

validated = curator.validate()
validated
Hide code cell output 
✓ "var_index" is validated against Gene.ensembl_gene_id

• saving validated records of 'tissue'

✓ added 1 record from public with Tissue.name for "tissue": 'lung'

✓ "assay" is validated against ExperimentalFactor.name

✓ "cell_type" is validated against CellType.name

✓ "development_stage" is validated against DevelopmentalStage.name

✓ "disease" is validated against Disease.name

✓ "self_reported_ethnicity" is validated against Ethnicity.name

✓ "sex_ontology_term_id" is validated against Phenotype.ontology_id

✓ "suspension_type" is validated against ULabel.name

✓ "tissue" is validated against Tissue.name

✓ "tissue_type" is validated against ULabel.name

✓ "organism" is validated against Organism.name

True

adata.obs.head()
Hide code cell output
donor_id tissue cell_type assay sex_ontology_term_id organism sex development_stage disease self_reported_ethnicity suspension_type tissue_type
CZINY-0109_CTGGTCTAGTCTGTAC D496-1 blood classical monocyte 10x 3' v3 PATO:0000384 human unknown unknown normal unknown cell tissue
CZI-IA10244332+CZI-IA10244434_CCTTCGACATACTCTT 621B-1 thoracic lymph node T follicular helper cell 10x 5' v2 PATO:0000384 human unknown unknown normal unknown cell tissue
Pan_T7935491_CTGGTCTGTACATGTC A29-1 spleen memory B cell 10x 5' v1 PATO:0000384 human unknown unknown normal unknown cell tissue
Pan_T7980367_GGGCATCCAGGTGGAT A36-1 lung alveolar macrophage 10x 5' v1 PATO:0000384 human unknown unknown normal unknown cell tissue
Pan_T7935494_ATCATGGTCTACCTGC A29-1 mesenteric lymph node naive thymus-derived CD4-positive, alpha-beta ... 10x 5' v1 PATO:0000384 human unknown unknown normal unknown cell tissue

Save artifact

artifact = curator.save_artifact(
    key=f"my_datasets/dataset-curated-against-cxg-{curator.schema_version}.h5ad"
)
Hide code cell output 
! no run & transform got linked, call `ln.track()` & re-run

• key has more than one suffix (path.suffixes), using only last suffix: '.h5ad' - if you want your composite suffix to be recognized add it to lamindb.core.storage.VALID_SIMPLE_SUFFIXES.add()

• path content will be copied to default storage upon `save()` with key 'my_datasets/dataset-curated-against-cxg-5.1.0.h5ad'

✓ storing artifact 'vAkneHT8B0r5dPFI0000' at '/home/runner/work/cellxgene-lamin/cellxgene-lamin/docs/test-cellxgene-curate/.lamindb/vAkneHT8B0r5dPFI0000.h5ad'

! run input wasn't tracked, call `ln.track()` and re-run

✓ 36390 unique terms (100.00%) are validated for ensembl_gene_id

✓ 10 unique terms (83.30%) are validated for name

! 2 unique terms (16.70%) are not validated for name: 'donor_id', 'sex'

✓ loaded 10 Feature records matching name: 'tissue', 'cell_type', 'assay', 'sex_ontology_term_id', 'organism', 'development_stage', 'disease', 'self_reported_ethnicity', 'suspension_type', 'tissue_type'

! did not create Feature records for 2 non-validated names: 'donor_id', 'sex'

✓ saved 2 feature sets for slots: 'var','obs'

artifact.describe()
Hide code cell output 
Artifact .h5ad/AnnData
├── General
│   ├── .uid = 'vAkneHT8B0r5dPFI0000'
│   ├── .key = 'my_datasets/dataset-curated-against-cxg-5.1.0.h5ad'
│   ├── .size = 54670616
│   ├── .hash = 'VYhEnkViOhtD-7kN2odUGw'
│   ├── .n_observations = 1626
│   ├── .path = 
│   │   /home/runner/work/cellxgene-lamin/cellxgene-lamin/docs/test-cellxgene-curate/.lamindb/vAkneHT8B0r5dPFI0000.
│   │   h5ad
│   ├── .created_by = testuser1 (Test User1)
│   └── .created_at = 2025-03-20 07:50:33
├── Dataset features/.feature_sets
│   ├── var • 36390                 [bionty.Gene]                                                       
│   │   MIR1302-2HG                 float                                                               
│   │   FAM138A                     float                                                               
│   │   OR4F5                       float                                                               
│   │   OR4F29                      float                                                               
│   │   OR4F16                      float                                                               
│   │   LINC01409                   float                                                               
│   │   FAM87B                      float                                                               
│   │   LINC01128                   float                                                               
│   │   LINC00115                   float                                                               
│   │   FAM41C                      float                                                               
│   └── obs • 10                    [Feature]                                                           
│       assay                       cat[bionty.ExperimentalF…  10x 3' v3, 10x 5' v1, 10x 5' v2          
│       cell_type                   cat[bionty.CellType]       CD16-negative, CD56-bright natural kille…
│       development_stage           cat[bionty.Developmental…  unknown                                  
│       disease                     cat[bionty.Disease]        normal                                   
│       organism                    cat[bionty.Organism]       human                                    
│       self_reported_ethnicity     cat[bionty.Ethnicity]      unknown                                  
│       sex_ontology_term_id        cat[bionty.Phenotype]      male                                     
│       suspension_type             cat[ULabel]                cell                                     
│       tissue                      cat[bionty.Tissue]         blood, bone marrow, caecum, duodenum, il…
│       tissue_type                 cat[ULabel]                tissue                                   
└── Labels
    └── .organisms                  bionty.Organism            human                                    
        .tissues                    bionty.Tissue              sigmoid colon, caecum, jejunal epitheliu…
        .cell_types                 bionty.CellType            germinal center B cell, CD16-positive, C…
        .diseases                   bionty.Disease             normal                                   
        .phenotypes                 bionty.Phenotype           male                                     
        .experimental_factors       bionty.ExperimentalFactor  10x 5' v2, 10x 3' v3, 10x 5' v1          
        .developmental_stages       bionty.DevelopmentalStage  unknown                                  
        .ethnicities                bionty.Ethnicity           unknown                                  
        .ulabels                    ULabel                     tissue, cell

Return an input h5ad file for cellxgene-schema

title = "Cross-tissue immune cell analysis reveals tissue-specific features in humans (for test demo only)"
adata_cxg = curator.to_cellxgene_anndata(is_primary_data=True, title=title)
adata_cxg
Hide code cell output 
AnnData object with n_obs × n_vars = 1626 × 36390
    obs: 'donor_id', 'sex_ontology_term_id', 'suspension_type', 'tissue_type', 'tissue_ontology_term_id', 'cell_type_ontology_term_id', 'assay_ontology_term_id', 'organism_ontology_term_id', 'development_stage_ontology_term_id', 'disease_ontology_term_id', 'self_reported_ethnicity_ontology_term_id', 'is_primary_data'
    var: 'feature_is_filtered'
    uns: 'default_embedding', 'title', 'cxg_lamin_schema_reference', 'cxg_lamin_schema_version'
    obsm: 'X_umap'

adata_cxg.write_h5ad("anndata_human_immune_cells_cxg.h5ad")

!MPLBACKEND=agg uvx cellxgene-schema validate anndata_human_immune_cells_cxg.h5ad || exit 1
Hide code cell output 
Loading dependencies

Loading validator modules

Starting validation...

Unable to open 'anndata_human_immune_cells_cxg.h5ad' with AnnData

Note

The Curate class is designed to validate all metadata for adherence to ontologies. It does not reimplement all rules of the cellxgene schema and we therefore recommend running the cellxgene-schema if full adherence beyond metadata is a necessity.