I am hoping you can help.  There have been several discussions on image
analysis on the Histonet before.  I realize this question may be a little
different, but we are about to embark on a new protocol.  See our
technicians question below.  Dr. Ring is not on Histonet, but I will happily
pass on any correspondence.

For those of you who like more background:

 Traditionally, we have gone through a long days procedure to procure fresh
mouse islets from several murine pancreata, as a source to do islet
transplants.  We are looking for better ways to assess the islet size,
condition, and speed up islet isolation while improving islet recovery (this
is an ongoing goal for years now, really).  Because islets can be easily
picked (in media placed in a 60mm-100mm tissue culture/petri dish) using
particular dyes, we would like to utilize those dyes, and light microscopy
to determine islet size and viability.  Some of these islets are further
digested for FACS Analysis.

Any ideas, comments, and further questions are welcomed.

Sincere Thanks,
Noelle


PS If anyone has the archives of previous discussions, or the dates so I can
request the archives from Herb, please let me know.  Of course, I recently
deleted these thinking our department would never spring for new equipment.
Little did I know!
> ----------
> From: 	Ring, Michael
> Sent: 	Tuesday, November 17, 1998 9:03 PM
> To: 	Patterson, Noelle
> Subject: 	histo list question
>
> Here is the question. Please feel free to edit as you see fit. I do not
> know the proper protocol for the signature, so below is my best guess.
> Thanks!
>
> --------------------------------------
>
> Our group is considering setting up a digital microscopy station. The
> purpose is to automatically analyze images of pancreatic islet cell
> preparations. After cell preparation, the computer needs to:
> 1. acquire the image (light only, no fluorescence)
> 2. clean up the image
> 3. isolate the relevant cell clusters using brightness or color
> thresholding
> 4. count and measure the resulting binary objects
> 5. maintain a database of images and data
>
> Does anybody have any recommendations on cameras and software?
>
> I have been considering the Pixera camera as a reasonable low cost
> digitial camera.
>
> Software possibilities include Metamorph (Universal Imaging), ImagePro
> (Media Cybernetics), NIH Image (NIH), Visilog (Noesis), and Visual Basic
> (rolling our own).
>
> If anybody has had good or bad experiences in this area I would be very
> interested.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Michael Ring
> c/o Noelle Patterson
> Immune Cell Biology Program
> Naval Medical Research Center
>
>
>
> Dr. Michael Ring
> Computer Coordinator for the
> Immune Cell Biology Program
> Naval Medical Research Institute
> Bethesda, MD
> ringm@nmripo.nmri.nnmc.navy.mil
>