Automated analysis of microscopic images of cellular tissues

Abstract

In this research project we investigate a variety of different approaches. A key element in our endeavour is the localising of points of interest (POI’s). These POI’s are the approximate centre points of the cells, the corners or vertices of the cells, and also the cell walls in given directions. Using these POI’s we have built some intuitive methods, but we have also incorporated them in a contour finding technique called ‘snakes’. The method concerning the snakes proved to be very fruitful, therefore we have studied a collection of greedy methods but also a gradient vector field method. Using the detected cells we can calculate the cell size and shape, which can be included in statistical analysis. From this statistical analysis we hope to provide a useful tool to quickly extract the data that is necessary to perform more thorough phenotype-genotype research.