Michael Hughey Slack

US Patent:

20060154236, Jul 13, 2006

Filed:

Nov 11, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/271215

Inventors:

Steven Altschuler - Dallas TX, US
Lani Wu - Dallas TX, US
Michael Slack - Dallas TX, US

International Classification:

C12Q 1/00
G06F 19/00

US Classification:

435004000, 702019000

Abstract:

The present invention provides methods and systems for automated morphological analysis of cells also known as phenotypic screening. The inventive methods are particularly useful in the rapid analysis of cells required in a biological screen or in the screening for agents with a particular mechanism of action. Agents which cause a particular phenotype in the cells can be identified using the inventive quantitative morphometric analysis of cells. The data gathered using the inventive method can also be quantified and analyzed later for various trends and classifications (e.g., Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistics, titration-invariant similarity scores). Characteristics of cells which can be determined using this method include number of nuclei, size of cell, size of nuclei, number of the centrosomes, shape of cells, size of centrosomes, perimeter of nucleus, shape of nucleus, staining for a particular protein, staining for an organelle, pattern of staining, and degree of staining.