Hi there,
I am interested in learning spatial transcriptomics, so I found your site with share data. In cell by gene matrix, I see there are many columns with blank-xx. 
Should we keep these columns for the analysis? Thank you so much.
Chris Doan
Hi Chris,
Those are what’s called blank barcodes. They have the same specifications as a barcode for a regular gene but they don’t encode for one. They basically serve as measure for false positive detection. We mainly use it for quality control of the dataset so if you are mainly interested in gene expression you can safely ignore them.
Michael
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