Applied computer technology for management, synthesis, visualization, and exploration of parameters in large multi-parameter data sets

A computer program product comprising:

• a plurality of processor-executable instructions that are resident on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, wherein the instructions are configured, upon execution by a processor, to cause the processor to:
• receive a multi-parameter data set comprising cellular gene expression data generated by flow cytometry equipment based on a plurality of cells, the multi-parameter data set including a plurality of data items, each data item associated with a plurality of parameters corresponding to expression of a plurality of genes and including data values for each of the associated parameters;
• provide a user interface to a user for visualizing the multi-parameter data set across a first axis and a second axis, wherein the user interface is configured to enable the user to select a first parameter from among the plurality of parameters to associate with the first axis and a second parameter from among the plurality of parameters to associate with the second axis;
• receive a first user input from the user via the user interface, wherein the first user input comprises a selection of a first parameter associated with the first axis and a second parameter associated with the second axis;
• generate, within the user interface, a cell view scatterplot of a multi-parameter data set across the first and second axes, wherein the first and second axes correspond to user-selected first and second parameters within the multi-parameter data set, the cell view scatterplot comprising a first plurality of dots, each dot in the first plurality of dots corresponding to a data item from the multi-parameter data set and being positioned on the cell view scatterplot at a position along the first and second axes at a location corresponding to the data values for the parameters corresponding to the axes;
• receive a second user input from the user via the interface, wherein the second user input comprises a selection of a first cell population associated with the first axis and a second cell population associated with the second axis;
• in response to receiving the second user input, pivot from the cell view scatterplot to a gene view scatterplot by generating, within the user interface, the gene view scatterplot comprising a second plurality of dots, wherein the second plurality of dots correspond to a plurality of different genes expressed by the first and the second cell populations, and each dot of the second plurality of dots is positioned on the first and second axis of the gene view scatterplot based on expression of the corresponding gene by the first and second cell populations;
• receiving, from the user via the user interface, a gate creation input defining a gated gene set comprising a subset of the plurality of different genes;
• create a synthetic parameter data object in a workspace, the synthetic parameter data object comprising, for individual cells of the plurality of cells, synthetic parameter values calculated based on two or more genes from the gated gene set;
• augment the cellular gene expression data such that the synthetic parameter values are associated with cells in the cellular gene expression data;
• and
• display, within the user interface, a second cell view scatterplot presenting a focused view of a cluster of cells, at least the first axis or the second axis in the second cell view scatterplot corresponding to the synthetic parameter.

A system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, upon execution by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
• receive a multi-parameter data set comprising cellular gene expression data generated by flow cytometry equipment based on a plurality of cells, the multi-parameter data set including a plurality of data items, each data item associated with a plurality of parameters corresponding to expression of a plurality of genes;
• provide a user interface to a user for visualizing the multi-parameter data set across a first axis and a second axis, wherein the user interface is configured to enable the user to select a first parameter from among the plurality of parameters to associate with a first axis and a second parameter from among the plurality of parameters to associate with a second axis;
• receive a first user input from the user via the user interface, wherein the first user input comprises a selection of a first parameter associated with the first axis and a second parameter associated with the second axis;
• generate, within the user interface, a cell view scatterplot of a multi-parameter data set across the first and second axes, wherein the first and second axes correspond to user-selected first and second parameters within the multi-parameter data set, the cell view scatterplot comprising a first plurality of dots, each dot in the first plurality of dots corresponding to a data item from the multi-parameter data set and being positioned on the cell view scatterplot at a position along the first and second axes at a location corresponding to the data values for the parameters corresponding to the axes;
• receive a second user input from the user via the interface, wherein the second user input comprises a selection of a first cell population associated with the first axis and a second cell population associated with the second axis;
• in response to receiving the second user input, pivot from the cell view scatterplot to a gene view scatterplot by generating, within the user interface, the gene view scatterplot comprising a second plurality of dots, wherein the second plurality of dots correspond to a plurality of different genes expressed by the first and the second cell populations, and each dot of the second plurality of dots is positioned on the first and second axis of the gene view scatterplot based on expression of the corresponding gene by the first and second cell populations;
• receive, from the user via the user interface, a gate creation input defining a gated gene set comprising a subset of the plurality of different genes;
• create a synthetic parameter data object in a workspace, the synthetic parameter data object comprising, for individual cells of the plurality of cells, synthetic parameter values calculated based on two or more genes from the gated gene set;
• augment the cellular gene expression data such that the synthetic parameter values are associated with cells in the cellular gene expression data;
• and
• display, within the user interface, a second cell view scatterplot presenting a focused view of a cluster of cells, at least the first axis or the second axis in the second cell view scatterplot corresponding to the synthetic parameter.