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:
staining a tissue with both a test biomarker and a known stain; acquiring a digital image of the stained tissue; identifying a first cell component region that is stained by the known stain, wherein the first cell component region corresponds to a first cell component; identifying a second cell component region using the first cell component region, wherein the second cell component region corresponds to a second cell component; determining a stained proportion of pixels within the second cell component region whose colors fall within a selected color range, wherein the test biomarker stains tissue to have a color that falls within the selected color range; identifying the test biomarker as a stain for the second cell component if the stained proportion of pixels whose colors fall within the selected color range exceeds a predetermined proportion; and displaying on a graphical user interface an indication whether the test biomarker is a stain for the second cell component.