Title: Finding cells, finding molecules, finding patterns

Authors: Carolina Wahlby, Patrick Karlsson, Sara Henriksson, Chatarina Larsson, Mats Nilsson, Ewert Bengtsson

Addresses: Department of Genetics and Pathology, Centre for Image Analysis, Uppsala University, Sweden. ' Centre for Image Analysis, Uppsala University, Sweden. ' Department of Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University, Sweden. ' Department of Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University, Sweden. ' Department of Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University, Sweden. ' Centre for Image Analysis, Uppsala University, Sweden

Abstract: Many modern molecular labelling techniques result in bright point signals. Signals from molecules that are detected directly inside a cell can be captured by fluorescence microscopy. Signals representing different types of molecules may be randomly distributed in the cells or show systematic patterns, indicating that the corresponding molecules have specific, non-random localisations and functions in the cell. Assessing this information requires high speed robust image segmentation followed by signal detection, and finally, pattern analysis. We present and discuss these types of methods and show an example of how the distribution of different variants of mitochondrial DNA can be analysed.

Keywords: mass data analysis; image analysis; cytometry; single molecule detection; padlock probes; pattern analysis; molecular labelling; fluorescence microscopy; image segmentation; signal detection; mitochondrial DNA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSISE.2008.017768

International Journal of Signal and Imaging Systems Engineering, 2008 Vol.1 No.1, pp.11 - 17

Published online: 12 Apr 2008 *

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