Name: Frontier Score for "Single-nucleus atlas of cell-type specific genetic regulation in the human brain"
Rating: 64
Author: Frontier

What it is

The authors built a single-nucleus, multi-ancestry atlas of how genetic variants regulate gene expression in the human prefrontal cortex, from 5.6 million nuclei from 1,384 donors of diverse ancestries. Across eight major cell classes and 27 subclasses they identify genetic regulation for 14,258 genes, 981 of them with cell type-specific effects at the class level and 857 at the subclass level. They also find 2,073 genes whose regulatory effects vary across developmental trajectories and 1,655 genes with trans-regulatory effects.

Fig. 1 of the paper: Genetic regulation of gene expression at the cell-type level. — Fig. 1 from the paperGenetic regulation of gene expression at the cell-type level.Biao Zeng et al., Nature Genetics (2026), under CC BY 4.0, shown unaltered.

Why it matters

Genetic risk variants for common diseases sit predominantly in non-coding regulatory regions and act by changing gene expression, but the cellular specificity of those effects has remained largely unexplored. Colocalizing variants that regulate genes with variants associated with disease uncovers novel cell type-specific genes implicated in Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and other disorders that bulk tissue analyses could not detect.

Underlined numbers link to their source. Every metric and quoted figure is listed under Sources and data below.

Filed underGenetic Associations and Epidemiology, Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, Functional Brain Connectivity Studies

Scored 2026-11-12How scoring works

The Frontier Score, in full

How this entry's score is built, term by term. Open any pillar to see each sub-metric's raw value, how it maps to 0 to 100, and a link to its source (OpenAlex for most sub-metrics that combine several sources, NIH iCite where its ratio is part of field-normalized impact).

The three pillars as one shape: a result strong on every axis fills the triangle.

How the Frontier Score is calculated for this breakthrough
Term	Score	Weight	Points
EvidenceHow established and verifiable the result is.	93	× 0.25	23.1
ImpactHow much the result matters, judged field-relative and by current momentum.	50	× 0.25	12.5
NoveltyHow genuinely new the result is, and how fast-moving.	65	× 0.50	32.6
Weighted pillars			68.2
Frontier recency2 months since publication		× 0.93
IntegrityNot retracted		× 1
Frontier Score			64

Confidence: Early signalEarly signal: little citation history yet, so impact is an estimate and may shift as the work is taken up.

Every sub-metric, traced to its source

EvidenceHow established and verifiable the result is.93

Evidence sub-metrics
Sub-metric	Raw value	0 to 100	Weight	Points	Source
Peer review & venueWhether the work has cleared peer review, and how selective its venue is. Peer review is necessary but not sufficient: before citations accrue, a fresh result in one of the five general flagships (Nature, Science, Cell, NEJM, the Lancet) is a stronger evidence signal than one in a selective specialist or society journal, which in turn outranks one in a legitimate but very high-volume mega-journal, and any of them outranks a preprint that has not been reviewed at all.Maps to 0 to 100: Peer-reviewed article graded by venue tier: flagship journal (Nature, Science, Cell, NEJM, the Lancet) 100; selective journal (every other journal the index admits: the specialist journals of those families, JAMA, PNAS, Physical Review Letters and X) 90; high-volume mega-journal (Nature Communications, Science Advances) 78; venue not recorded 88. Other records: review 90, book 70, dataset 60, preprint 45, an article that has not been peer reviewed 45, other 55.	Peer-reviewed, selective journal	90	0.30	27.0	OpenAlex type / primary_location / source
CorroborationIndependent corroboration that the result is on the record and reaching beyond a single source, read as the BREADTH of independent records rather than the size of the citation pile. Counts how many of the five independent citation indices (OpenAlex, Crossref, Semantic Scholar, OpenCitations, Europe PMC) report a citation count for the work at all, zero included, plus orthogonal, non-citation lines of corroboration: citation in Wikipedia, registered clinical trials or clinical citations, released datasets or software or a repository copy, public funding on record, and technical-community discussion. Citation MAGNITUDE is deliberately judged under Impact, not here, so Evidence and Impact measure genuinely different things instead of both rewarding the same citation pile twice.Maps to 0 to 100: Starts at 28 and rises by 9 for each of the five independent citation indices that returns a citation count for the work (zero counts; OpenCitations returns zero even for a DOI it does not hold) and by 6 for each orthogonal non-citation line (Wikipedia, clinical trials or clinical citations, open datasets, software or a repository copy, public funding, community discussion), up to the top of the 0-100 scale.	5 of 5 citation indices report a count, 2 independent non-citation lines	85	0.30	25.5	OpenAlex, Crossref, Semantic Scholar, OpenCitations, Europe PMC, DataCite, NIH RePORTER, Wikipedia, Hacker News count of indices that report a count for the work + orthogonal reach
VerifiabilityHow openly the result can be read, reused, and reproduced. Rewards open access, a Creative Commons BY or CC0 license, a green repository copy anyone can archive, openly minable full text, and released datasets or software a reader can actually run. Cross-checked across OpenAlex, Unpaywall, Europe PMC, and DataCite.Maps to 0 to 100: Closed access 45; open access 88; any Creative Commons BY license (including the NC, ND and SA variants) or CC0 100. A repository copy raises the floor to 85, openly minable full text to 90, and released data or software to 92.	Open access (hybrid), CC-BY, repository copy	100	0.20	20.0	OpenAlex, Unpaywall, Europe PMC, DataCite is_oa / license / has_repository_copy / open datasets
IntegrityRetraction and post-publication correction status. A retracted result is not evidence of anything and collapses the whole Frontier Score; a correction or expression of concern is a softer flag. A correction the publisher labels as its own error (a Publisher Correction) is not a flag on the work. Read across OpenAlex and Crossref (both update-to and updated-by notices).Maps to 0 to 100: Clean 100 (also when the only notice is a Publisher Correction); a correction or expression of concern 75; retracted 0. Flagged if OpenAlex OR Crossref records the notice.	No retraction or concern on record	100	0.20	20.0	OpenAlex, Crossref is_retracted / update-to / updated-by

ImpactHow much the result matters, judged field-relative and by current momentum.50

Impact sub-metrics
Sub-metric	Raw value	0 to 100	Weight	Points	Source
Field-normalized impactImpact relative to the world average for the same field, year, and type, so a small field and a large field are judged fairly. Triangulates three independent field-normalized measures: OpenAlex's Field-Weighted Citation Impact, its citation percentile within the exact field-and-year cohort, and the NIH iCite Relative Citation Ratio. 1.0x is average; the percentile is the share of same-field, same-year work it out-cites.Maps to 0 to 100: Each ratio (1.0 = field average) maps 1.0 to 50, 3.0 to 75, 9.0 to 90; the field+year percentile maps directly (top 1% -> ~99). The available measures are averaged. When none is available yet (very recent work), this sub-metric is left out and Impact is computed from the others.	12.0x FWCI, 2.5x RCR, top 1% of field-year vs field	88	0.45	39.4	OpenAlex, NIH iCite fwci / citation_normalized_percentile / relative_citation_ratio
Influential citationsCitations that genuinely build on the work rather than mention it in passing (Semantic Scholar's influential-citation measure). A sharper signal of real impact than a raw count.Maps to 0 to 100: Saturating: 15 influential citations maps to 50, and none maps to 0. When Semantic Scholar has no measure for the work, this sub-metric is left out and Impact is computed from the others.	0 influential	0	0.20	0.0	Semantic Scholar influentialCitationCount
Citation velocityCitations received in the trailing twelve months (estimated from yearly citation counts: this year's so far plus the share of last year's that falls inside the window), judged as a rate rather than a lifetime total. Momentum is what a frontier index cares about: a result being taken up fast right now is landing, whether its lifetime pile is large or still small. Where an expected field citation rate is known, the momentum is also read relative to it, so a fast-moving result in a quiet field is not overlooked.Maps to 0 to 100: Saturating: 30 citations in the last twelve months maps to 50. When NIH iCite provides the field's expected rate, this is blended evenly with the ratio of observed to expected momentum.	9 in last 12 months (0.6x field rate)	30	0.35	10.6	OpenAlex, NIH iCite counts_by_year / field_citation_rate

NoveltyHow genuinely new the result is, and how fast-moving.65

Novelty sub-metrics
Sub-metric	Raw value	0 to 100	Weight	Points	Source
Conceptual noveltyHow genuinely new the contribution is, measured at publication from the work's OWN content, not its date: how atypical its combination of research areas is versus all prior work, and whether it builds on a broad, deep base rather than only the newest papers in a fast-moving area. This is what separates a real advance from a recent-but-commodity result, and it needs no forward citations, so it is stable for brand-new work. An honestly noisy proxy (even state-of-the-art novelty measures agree only moderately with expert judgment), so it carries bounded weight and never drives the ranking alone.Maps to 0 to 100: Two publication-time signals, each 0-100. The primary one is atypical combination: how unusual the work's median pairing of research topics is versus the prior literature, by pointwise mutual information (a pairing made far more often than chance scores low). The second, foundational reach (the median age of the work's references and the share older than five years), can only lift it: when reach is higher, the score rises by 35% of the gap, and it is never lowered. When only one signal is measurable it is used alone; when neither is (a work too thin in topics or references), this sub-metric is left out and Novelty is computed from the other three. A review is damped to 60%.	Median topic pairing Genetic Associations and Epidemiology x Functional Brain Connectivity Studies (1,147 prior works made this pairing); builds on refs a median 6.3y deep	55	0.45	24.8	OpenAlex topics + referenced_works (publication-time)
RecencyHow recently the work appeared. The frontier is now, so newer scores higher.Maps to 0 to 100: Exponential decay with a 12-month half-life from the publication date.	2 months old	91	0.30	27.3	OpenAlex publication_date
Attention accelerationWhether attention is rising: citations in the latest full year versus the year before. Accelerating interest signals an active, opening frontier.Maps to 0 to 100: Latest/prior-year ratio: 1x maps to 50, 2x to 75, 4x to 100. The prior year counts as at least 3 citations, so a jump from one citation to a few is not read as explosive growth. With no citations in the latest full year it reads as unknown, and unknown is neutral (50).	0.3x cooling	10	0.10	1.0	OpenAlex counts_by_year
Edge of reviewPreprints sit ahead of the peer-review process and brand-new papers have only just cleared it. Both earn novelty here (while a preprint is discounted under Evidence), because that is where the frontier forms first.Maps to 0 to 100: Preprint 95; any other record 80 when under 6 months old, 65 under 18 months, 45 after that.	Peer-reviewed record	80	0.15	12.0	OpenAlex type / publication_date

ProvenanceAll sources

Sources and data

The source figures behind this entry, grouped by the source that holds them: up to five citation indices cross-checked, field-normalized impact, then real-world reach (Wikipedia, community discussion, clinical trials, released data and public funding) where it exists. Each value links to its record.

OpenAlex

Primary record

Total citations: 10
Field-weighted citation impact: 12.0x field average
Citation percentile: Top 1% of its field-year
Citations, recent 12 months: 9
Publication date: 2026-09-23
Access: Open access (hybrid)

Crossref

Citations: 2
Works it builds on: 77
Funders on record: 15

Semantic Scholar

Citations, all versions: 2
Influential citations: 0

OpenCitations

Citations: 0

Europe PMC

Citations: 4

NIH iCite

Relative Citation Ratio: 2.49 (NIH-funded median 1.0)
Potential to translate: 50%

Unpaywall

Reuse license: CC-BY

NIH RePORTER

NIH grants funding it: 11
NIH award funding: $104,571,656

OpenAlex record Read it in Nature Genetics

Figures quoted in the write-up

Figure	Value	Source
Nuclei profiled (Single-nucleus atlas of the human prefrontal cortex)	5.6 million	Nature Genetics
Donors of diverse ancestries (Source of the nuclei in the multi-ancestry atlas)	1,384	Nature Genetics
Cell subclasses (Analyses also span eight major cell classes)	27	Nature Genetics
Genes with genetic regulation (Identified across cell classes and subclasses)	14,258	Nature Genetics
Cell type-specific genes, class level (Showing cell type-specific regulatory effects at the class level)	981	Nature Genetics
Cell type-specific genes, subclass level (Showing cell type-specific regulatory effects at the subclass level)	857	Nature Genetics
Genes with dynamic regulation (Regulatory effects vary across developmental trajectories)	2,073	Nature Genetics
Genes with trans-regulatory effects (Revealing distal regulation of gene expression)	1,655	Nature Genetics

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What it is

Why it matters

The Frontier Score, in full

Sources and data

OpenAlex

Crossref

Semantic Scholar

OpenCitations

Europe PMC

NIH iCite

Unpaywall

NIH RePORTER

Show this score where your work lives

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