Image analysis of the golgi complex

Abstract

Methods, code and apparatus analyze cell images to automatically identify and characterize the Golgi complex in individual cells. This is accomplished by first locating the cells in the image and defining boundaries of those cells that subsume some or all of the Golgi complex of those cells. The Golgi complex in the images typically have intensity values corresponding to the concentration of a Golgi component in the cell (e.g. a polysaccharide associated with the Golgi complex). The method/system then analyzes the Golgi components of the image (typically on a pixel-by-pixel basis) to mathematically characterize the Golgi complex of individual cells. This mathematical characterization represents phenotypic information about the cells' Golgi complex and can be used to classify cells. From this information, mechanism of action and other important biological information can be deduced.

1 . A method of automatically characterizing the Golgi complex in an interphase cell comprising: 
 (a) identifying an interphase cell in an image;    (b) identifying a region of the image containing the Golgi complex of the interphase cell;    (c) extracting from the Golgi region of the cell one or more features of the Golgi complex; and    (d) characterizing the Golgi complex in the interphase cell based on the one or more features of the Golgi complex.    
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the image is an image of a population of cells.  
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the population of cells has been exposed to a stimulus.  
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying an interphase cell comprises analyzing signal from a DNA marker in the cell.  
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more features of the Golgi complex are selected from a kurtosis of intensity values associated with Golgi complex, an eigenvalue of a singular value decomposition of intensity values associated with Golgi complex, a mean of intensity values associated with Golgi complex, a standard deviation of intensity values associated with Golgi complex, a peakedness of a histogram of pixel intensities and a texture of the Golgi regions of the image.  
   
   
       6 . A computer program product comprising a computer readable memory on which is stored program instructions for automatically characterizing the Golgi complex in an interphase cell, the program instructions comprising: 
 (a) code for identifying an interphase cell in an image;    (b) code for identifying a region of the image containing the Golgi complex of the interphase cell;    (c) code for extracting from the Golgi region of the cell one or more features of the Golgi complex; and    (d) code for characterizing the Golgi complex in the interphase cell based on the one or more features of the Golgi complex.    
   
   
       7 . The computer program product of  claim 6 , wherein the image is an image of a population of cells.  
   
   
       8 . The computer program product of  claim 7 , wherein the population of cells has been exposed to a stimulus.  
   
   
       9 . The computer program product of  claim 6 , wherein the code for identifying an interphase cell comprises code for analyzing signal from a DNA marker in the cell.  
   
   
       10 . The computer program product of  claim 6 , wherein the one or more features of the Golgi complex are selected from a kurtosis of intensity values associated with Golgi complex, an eigenvalue of a singular value decomposition of intensity values associated with Golgi complex, a mean of intensity values associated with Golgi complex, a standard deviation of intensity values associated with Golgi complex, a peakedness of a histogram of pixel intensities and a texture of the Golgi regions of the image.