3-D Computer Graphics and Analysis of Microscopic Images of Biological Structures

将开发一个先进的交互式序列重建系统，并将实施程序来推导和可视化厚切片电子显微镜倾斜序列的数据。这项奖励将为这些努力提供初步基础。圣地亚哥超级计算机中心的设施将用于实施和探索计算机图形方法，用于通过三维介质将数据表示为一系列平面或横截面的三维重建和可视化。计算机软件工具不仅可供生物学家使用，也可供气象学家、海洋学家和地质学家使用，他们希望探索以层或地层形式收集的数据的三维分布方面。这些程序正在一个热心的泰坦和硅图形IRIS工作站上执行。对电子显微镜图像进行分析，以获得有关生物标本结构的大量三维信息。该方法采用二维图像的层析重建，并利用数字化倾斜序列和三维能量分布的配准的先前发展。计算机技术的进步将应用于电子显微镜和光学显微镜的细胞图像的三维重建，分子和大分子组合的图像，以及神经解剖制图系统。

An advanced interactive serial reconstruction system will be developed, and programs will be implemented for the derivation and visualization of data from thick section electron microscopy tilt series. This award will provide an initial basis for these efforts. The facilities of the San Diego Supercomputer Center will be utilized to implement and explore computer graphic methods for the three dimensional reconstruction and visualization of data represented as a series of planes or cross sections through a three dimensional medium. The computer software tools will be available not only for biologists but also for meteorologists, oceanographers and geologists who wish to explore three dimensional distributional aspects of data collected in the form of layers or strata. The programs are being implemented on an Ardent Titan and a Silicon Graphics IRIS workstation. The electron microscopic images are being analyzed to obtain substantial three dimensional information about the structure of biological specimens. The methods employ tomographic reconstruction of two dimensional images and exploit prior developments for registration of digitized tilt series and three dimensional energy distribution. The computer advances will be applied to three dimensional reconstruction of cellular images from both electron and light microscopy, to images of molecular and macromolecular assemblies, and to neuroanatomical mapping systems.