Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Cell Image Visualization

Cell Image Visualization

Summary:


Biological cell image analysis projects include methods to measure cell segmentation accuracy and new segmentation methods to track live cells.

Applications:

1. Cell segmentation accuracy:

In a study of segmentation accuracy using 2 cell lines and 5 different imaging conditions, we have studied which factors affect cell segmentation accuracy. We have developed a concept called the extended edge neighborhood which can be calculated for each cell on an image, that describes the fraction of image pixels near the edge of the cell, and thus at risk for segmentation inaccuracy. Figure 1 shows the same cell imaged under different imaging conditions,where differences in edge quality can be seen.

2. Live cell segmentation and cell tracking:

We are also studying new methods to do live cell tracking of various cell lines of interest to collaborating groups. In particular, we are developing new techniques to segment/track a breast cancer cell line that is challenging to segment using traditional methods. Metastatic breast cancer cells have the ability to migrate to other parts of the body, and this cell line is begin used to study this cell migration. Figure 2 shows the results of our new method taken for images taken at 10 minute intervals from our breast cancer cell line. See the link below for sampleimage data.

The same cell imaged under different imaging  conditions show a range of edge quality.

Figure 1: The same cell imaged under different imaging conditions show a range of edge quality.

 time0102030

Figure 2: Sample images and the resulting segmentation masks with cell tracking.


Return to Visualization of Biological Images
Created December 9, 2010, Updated September 21, 2016