Turnkey solution for image phenotype classification

描述（由申请人提供）：荧光显微镜技术的最新进展使得能够开发各种基于图像的测定，这些测定适用于药物发现、神经科学中的RNAi筛选、酵母遗传学和癌症研究等领域。这些测定法富含表型信息，例如细胞形态和蛋白定位和活性。然而，尽管技术进步和丰富的细胞数据的新来源的承诺，显着的困难仍然是在解释图像数据的研究人员。最值得注意的是，缺乏用于生成快速和全面的图像数据摘要的易于使用的工具。 将开发、测试并向研究界部署一套用于分析图像数据的交钥匙软件。该软件将根据图像表型自动对实验条件进行分类，并显示区分实验条件的图像表型的具体示例。这种分类将能够对具有或不具有特定细胞表型的先验知识的图像进行分组。该软件将能够在一台台式计算机上运行，不需要大多数生物应用的专业知识。 因此，本提案的目标是使从大型图像数据集中提取汇总信息与分析微阵列数据一样常规。这项工作的结果将提供荧光显微镜作为基础研究工具的能力的显着扩展，为研究人员提供了一种新的能力，以探究细胞信号传导机制等基本过程，以及细胞对治疗药物的反应，如敏感性，抗性和毒性。 项目说明：在这项提案中，将开发、测试并向研究界提供一个交钥匙软件工具，用于自动识别荧光显微镜获得的图像中的重要细胞表型。这一点很重要，因为缺乏用于生成图像数据的快速和压缩摘要的通用工具。这项工作的结果将提供荧光显微镜作为基础研究工具的能力的显着扩展，为研究人员提供了一种新的能力，以探究细胞信号传导机制等基本过程，以及细胞对治疗药物的反应，如敏感性，抗性和毒性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Recent advances in fluorescence microscopy technology have enabled the development of a wide variety of image-based assays that are applicable to such areas as drug discovery, RNAi screens in neuroscience, yeast genetics, and cancer research. These assays are rich in phenotypic information such as cell morphology and protein localization and activity. However, despite the technological progress and promise of rich new sources of cellular data, significant difficulties remain in the interpretation of image data by researchers. Most notably, easy to use tools for producing rapid and comprehensive summaries of image data are lacking. A turnkey software package for the analysis of image data will be developed, tested, and deployed to the research community. The software will automatically classify experimental conditions by image phenotypes, and display specific examples of image phenotypes that distinguish experimental conditions. This classification will be able to group images either with or without prior knowledge of specific cell phenotypes. The software will be capable of running on a single desktop computer, requiring no specialized expertise for most biological applications. Thus, the goal of this proposal is to make the extraction of summarized information from large image data sets as routine as analyzing microarray data. The results of this work will provide a significant expansion of the capacity of fluorescence microscopy as a basic research tool, providing researchers with a new ability to inquire into such fundamental processes as the mechanisms of cellular signaling, and cellular responses to therapeutics such as sensitivity, resistance, and toxicity. Project narrative: In this proposal, a turnkey software tool for the automatic identification of important cellular phenotypes in images obtained by fluorescence microscopy will be developed, tested and delivered to the research community. This is important because general tools for producing rapid and compressive summaries of image data are lacking. The results of this work will provide a significant expansion of the capacity of fluorescence microscopy as a basic research tool, providing researchers with a new ability to inquire into such fundamental processes as the mechanisms of cellular signaling, and cellular responses to therapeutics such as sensitivity, resistance, and toxicity.