Biomarker Evaluation Through Image Analysis

摘要

A method for determining whether a test biomarker is a stain for a type of cell component, such as membrane or nucleus, involves performing various segmentation processes on an image of tissue stained with the test biomarker. One segmentation process searches for a first cell component type, and another segmentation process searches for a second cell component type by segmenting only stained pixels. The test biomarker is identified as a stain for each component type if the process identifies the component based only on stained pixels. Whether the test biomarker is a membrane stain or nucleus stain is displayed on a graphical user interface. In addition, the method identifies stained pixels corresponding to a second cell component using pixels determined to correspond to a first cell component. An expression profile for the test biomarker is then displayed that indicates the proportion of stained pixels in each type of cell component.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
performing a first segmentation process on a digital image that searches for a first cell component type having a predetermined color, wherein the digital image depicts tissue that is stained with a test biomarker to have the predetermined color; performing a second segmentation process on the digital image that searches for a second cell component type that has the predetermined color; identifying the test biomarker as a stain for the first cell component type if the first segmentation process identifies the first cell component type; identifying the test biomarker as a stain for the second cell component type if the second segmentation process identifies the second cell component type, wherein both, neither or only one of the first and second cell component types can be identified; and displaying on a graphical user interface whether the test biomarker is a stain for the first cell component type and whether the test biomarker is a stain for the second cell component type.