STORM-OMICS

A Principled Statistical Framework for Analyzing Spatial Patterns in Spatially Resolved Multi-Omics

STORM is a principled statistical method for identifying, quantifying, and comparing spatial patterns in spatially resolved multi-omics data. Unlike conventional approaches that focus solely on statistical significance, STORM provides a unified framework for:

• Identifying spatially variable features (SVFs)
• Quantifying the magnitude of spatial dependency through interpretable effect sizes
• Comparing spatial patterns across biological conditions
• Performing statistical power analysis and sample size determination for spatial studies

The framework is designed to support both single-sample and multi-sample analyses, enabling rigorous statistical inference in modern spatial transcriptomics and spatial multi-omics experiments.

This repository provides a standalone Python package equivalent to CastleLi/STORM.

Features

• Approximate and finite-sample STORM tests
• Dense NumPy, pandas DataFrame, and SciPy sparse expression matrices
• Batched CPU execution that preserves sparse inputs
• Optional batched PyTorch CUDA execution
• Reusable immutable exact k-NN graphs for repeated analyses
• Treatment-versus-control and treatment-versus-treatment comparisons
• Power analysis for all three tests

Installation

The PyPI distribution name is storm-omics; the Python import is storm_omics. Python identifiers cannot contain hyphens. The shorter storm distribution name belongs to an unrelated Canonical ORM package. Install STORM-OMICS from PyPI:

python -m pip install storm-omics

GPU support

Install a CUDA-enabled PyTorch build appropriate for your operating system, driver, and CUDA runtime using the official PyTorch installer, then install STORM:

python -m pip install "storm-omics[gpu]"

GPU execution is opt-in with use_gpu=True. If PyTorch or CUDA is not available, STORM uses the CPU. If a CUDA operation fails, STORM emits a RuntimeWarning and recomputes on the CPU.

Spatial Pattern Test

The expression matrix must have shape M x N: spots in rows and features in columns. Coordinates must have shape M x D.

import pandas as pd
import storm_omics

data = pd.read_csv("spatial_data.csv")
coords = data[["x", "y", "z"]].to_numpy()
expression = data.drop(columns=["x", "y", "z"])

result = storm_omics.storm(
    coords,
    expression,
    k_nn=50,
    approx=True,
    use_gpu=False,
)

storm returns a DataFrame with:

• gene_names: DataFrame column names, or generated names for array inputs
• p_values: two-sided p-values for spatial dependency
• effect_size: spatial effect size, 1 - S2 / S0

Example output:

gene_names	p_values	effect_size
GeneA	0.0001	0.065
GeneB	0.0123	0.041

k_nn defaults to 50 for the approximation and 100 for the finite-sample calculation. It is capped at M - 1. Constant features receive a neutral p-value of 1 and effect size of 0.

To use CUDA:

result_gpu = storm_omics.storm(coords, expression, k_nn=50, use_gpu=True)

On the CPU, sparse inputs remain sparse throughout each feature batch. CUDA uses a sparse neighbor graph but transfers dense feature batches, with the batch size chosen from currently available VRAM. Large matrices remain float32; column reductions use bounded partial sums accumulated in float64 for CPU/GPU agreement without full-size float64 GPU copies.

Reference performance

Measured June 26, 2026 with Python 3.13, PyTorch 2.10.0, CUDA 12.8, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (15.9 GB), k_nn=50, approx=True, and the included real 2,308-spot by 10,000-feature dataset tiled with small coordinate jitter:

Copies	Spots	CPU	GPU	Speedup	CPU-run peak	GPU-run host peak	GPU peak VRAM
1x	2,308	0.197 s	0.091 s	2.17x	164 MB	154 MB	193 MB
2x	4,616	0.393 s	0.156 s	2.51x	242 MB	244 MB	259 MB
3x	6,924	0.584 s	0.238 s	2.46x	335 MB	334 MB	260 MB
4x	9,232	0.759 s	0.285 s	2.66x	445 MB	440 MB	262 MB

All four CPU/GPU comparisons had identical p < 0.05 calls and maximum p-value and effect-size differences below 5e-5. Host peak allocations are measured inside storm and exclude the already-loaded input DataFrame and interpreter. GPU memory is PyTorch peak allocated VRAM. Timings are median of five; memory-mode timings include tracing overhead and are therefore not shown here.

Reusing the exact neighbor graph

When several expression matrices share identical coordinates and neighbor count, prepare the graph once:

graph = storm_omics.prepare_storm_graph(coords, k_nn=50)

result_a = storm_omics.storm(coords, expression_a, graph=graph)
result_b = storm_omics.storm(coords, expression_b, graph=graph, use_gpu=True)

prepare_storm_graph runs the same exact directed k-NN construction as the ordinary call. The graph is immutable, storm verifies that its coordinates and neighbor count match, and exact-mode's graph-only scaling constant is cached lazily. Reuse therefore changes only setup cost, not any statistic.

On the 4x real dataset, median repeated-call time decreased from 0.759 s to 0.702 s on CPU and from 0.285 s to 0.230 s on GPU. Cold graph preparation took about 0.2 s, so it paid for itself after roughly four analyses on either path in this environment.

Group Comparisons

Treatment versus control

stormtrt implements a one-sided pooled two-proportion test with a default per-sample significance threshold of 0.05.

import pandas as pd
import storm_omics

data = pd.DataFrame({
    "Group": ["Control"] * 4 + ["Treatment"] * 4,
    "Pvalue": [0.40, 0.20, 0.01, 0.30, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.20],
})

comparison = storm_omics.stormtrt(data, control="Control", sig_level=0.05)

Two treatment groups

data = pd.DataFrame({
    "Group": ["A"] * 3 + ["B"] * 3,
    "EffectSize": [0.10, 0.11, 0.09, 0.02, 0.03, 0.01],
    "M": [3000] * 6,
    "K": [50] * 6,
})

comparison = storm_omics.storm2trt(data, alternative="two.sided")

Power Analysis

Exactly one parameter described as unknown must be None.

import storm_omics

# Single-sample STORM: solve for number of spots.
single = storm_omics.power_storm(
    es=0.06, n=None, power=0.80, sig_level=0.05
)

# Treatment versus control: solve for samples per control group.
control = storm_omics.powertrt(
    nsample=None,
    power=0.90,
    sig_level=0.05,
    ratio=1,
    power_single=0.80,
    sig_level_single=0.05,
)

# Two treatments: solve for group-1 sample size.
two_treatments = storm_omics.power2trt(
    delta=0.04,
    phi=4 / (50 * 3000),
    psi1=0.010,
    psi2=0.005,
    nsample=None,
    ratio=2,
    sig_level=0.05,
    power=0.80,
)

Power calculations return continuous sample-size estimates. Round up before using them as study sizes.

Tests and Benchmarks

python -m pytest
python test/benchmark_cpu_gpu.py --multipliers 1 2 3 4 --reps 5
python test/benchmark_cpu_gpu.py --multipliers 4 --reps 5 --reuse-graph
python test/benchmark_memory.py --multipliers 1 2 3 4

Benchmark results depend on data density, feature count, neighbor count, CPU, GPU, CUDA/PyTorch versions, and available memory. Run the included scripts on the target system rather than relying on timings from another machine.

Upstream Reproduction

The upstream repository contains the manuscript reproduction scripts for data processing, simulations, benchmark analyses, figures, and supplementary analyses in its Reproduction directory. Those R and manuscript-specific scripts are not duplicated in this Python distribution.

Citation

When using this implementation, cite the STORM method and the upstream CastleLi/STORM software. The upstream manuscript citation is still listed as pending and should be added here once its final bibliographic record is available.

STORM authors: Jinpu Li (ORCID 0000-0002-6656-2896) and Yiqing Wang.