To infer cellular composition from RNA-seq, we first assembled a reference panel to model the transcriptomic signature of neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and microglia. The panel was created by analyzing expression data from purified cell lines. We evaluated alternative digital deconvolution methods and selected the best performing for our primary analyses. We tested the digital deconvolution accuracy on iPSC-derived neurons/microglia cells and neuronal TRAP-seq (Fig. 1). Finally, we verified its accuracy by creating artificial admixture with pre-defined cellular proportions.
