Classification of segmented regions in brightfield microscope images

Abstract

The subcellular localisation of proteins in living cells is an important step to determine their function. A common method is the evaluation of fluorescence images. The position of marked proteins, visible as bright spots, enables conclusions concerning their function. In order to determine the subcellular localisation, it is crucial to know the exact positions of the considered cells within an image. These are provided by the segmentation of a corresponding brightfield microscope image. As the resulting segments do not exclusively comprise cells, they have to be classified. Therefore, we propose an approach for the classification of the resulting segments in 'cells' and 'non-cells', which is an essential step of the automatic recognition of cells and thus of the automatic subcellular localisation of proteins in living cells.