1. Fully automated cellular-resolution vertebrate screening platform with parallel animal processing
- Author
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Carolina Wählby, Mehmet Fatih Yanik, Amin Allalou, Tsung-Yao Chang, Carlos Pardo-Martin, Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Chang, Tsung-Yao, Pardo-Martin, Carlos, and Yanik, Mehmet Fatih
- Subjects
Process (engineering) ,Biomedical Engineering ,Bioengineering ,Computational biology ,Biology ,Biochemistry ,Article ,Animals, Genetically Modified ,biology.animal ,Zebrafish larvae ,Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ,Animals ,Humans ,Computer vision ,Throughput (business) ,Zebrafish ,Microscopy, Confocal ,business.industry ,fungi ,Mechanical Processes ,Vertebrate ,General Chemistry ,biology.organism_classification ,Cellular resolution ,Fully automated ,Artificial intelligence ,business ,Algorithms - Abstract
The zebrafish larva is an optically-transparent vertebrate model with complex organs that is widely used to study genetics, developmental biology, and to model various human diseases. In this article, we present a set of novel technologies that significantly increase the throughput and capabilities of our previously described vertebrate automated screening technology (VAST). We developed a robust multi-thread system that can simultaneously process multiple animals. System throughput is limited only by the image acquisition speed rather than by the fluidic or mechanical processes. We developed image recognition algorithms that fully automate manipulation of animals, including orienting and positioning regions of interest within the microscope's field of view. We also identified the optimal capillary materials for high-resolution, distortion-free, low-background imaging of zebrafish larvae., National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Director's New Innovator Award DP2 OD002989), National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Transformative Research Award R01 NS073127), David & Lucile Packard Foundation (Award in Science and Engineering), Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (SPARC Award), Foxconn International Holdings Ltd., Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging (Training Grant)
- Published
- 2011