Claims
- 1. A method for processing visual information from an image of a 2-D electrophoresis gel, and subsequently cutting spots from the 2-D electrophoresis gel, comprising the steps of:
having a 2-D electrophoresis gel with separated proteins thereon defining a pattern of spots, the separated proteins being provided from a sample subjected to two dimensional electrophoresis, where the sample is of specific origin, such as a bodily tissue or fluid; having a master pattern in digital form corresponding to previous electrophoresis separations of the sample; scanning the 2-D electrophoresis gel thereby converting the image from visual information into digital form; comparing the scanned image with information from the master pattern; outputting numeric data based upon the comparison in said comparing step; and cutting spots from the 2-D electrophoresis gel.
- 2. A method for processing visual information as set forth in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:
creating an object pattern from the scanned image or an image derived from the scanned image; matching spot data in the master pattern with spots represented in the object pattern; warping the master pattern into alignment with the object pattern thereby creating a new object pattern from the master pattern; and augmenting the new object pattern with spots in the object pattern not present in the master pattern.
- 3. A method for processing visual information as set forth in claim 2, wherein in said comparing step, the scanned image is compared to the new object pattern.
- 4. A method for processing visual information as set forth in claim 2, wherein in said comparing step, the new object pattern is fitted to a processed image based upon the scanned image bringing each spot in the new object pattern into more precise alignment with the spots in the scanned image.
- 5. A method for processing visual information as set forth in claim 4, wherein in said comparing step, the size and width of each spot in the new object pattern present in the processed image is replaced with the size and width of each corresponding spot in the processed image.
- 6. A method for processing visual information as set forth in claim 1, wherein said outputting step comprises outputting spot specific data.
- 7. A method for processing visual information as set forth in claim 6, wherein the spot specific data comprises:
an indication of presence of spots in the scanned image not found in the master pattern; an indication of the absence of spots in the scanned image found in the master pattern; x-widths and y-widths of spots in the scanned image; master spot numbers for at least a portion of the spots in the scanned image; amplitude of spots in the processed image; and integrated density of spots in the processed image.
- 8. A method for processing visual information as set forth in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:
creating an object pattern from the scanned image or an image derived from the scanned image; matching spot data in the master pattern with spots represented in the object pattern; and warping the master pattern into alignment with the object pattern thereby creating a new object pattern from the master pattern.
- 9. A method for processing visual information as set forth in claim 8, further comprising the step of augmenting the new object pattern with spots in the object pattern not present in the master pattern.
- 10. A method for processing visual information as set forth in claim 1, further comprising the step of subjecting the cu t spots to mass spectrometry.
- 11. A method for processing image data from a 2-D gel, and subsequently cutting spots from the 2-D gel, comprising the steps of:
having a 2-D gel with separated proteins thereon defining a pattern of spots, the separated proteins being provided from a sample subjected to two dimensional electrophoresis, where the sample is of specific origin, such as a bodily tissue or fluid; providing an appropriate tissue specific master pattern; creating an object pattern representing spots in an image of a 2-D gel protein separation from the appropriate tissue; matching spots in the object pattern with corresponding spots in the master pattern; rejecting matches or identification inconsistent with other matches; warping the master pattern to the object pattern to align matched spots; replacing the object pattern with warped master pattern to create a new object pattern; augmenting the new object pattern by adding well-defined spots in original object pattern not accountable in new object pattern; optimizing the new object pattern fitting to a processed image based on the scanned image; outputting information based upon said optimizing step; and cutting proteins from the 2-D gel.
- 12. A method for processing image data as set forth in claim 11, wherein the spots in the scanned image define a recognizable pattern of spots, each spot representing at least a portion of one protein.
- 13. A method for processing image data as set forth in claim 12, wherein said outputting step comprises outputting spot specific data.
- 14. A method for processing image data as set forth in claim 13, wherein the spot specific data comprises:
an indication of presence of spots in the scanned image not found in the master pattern; an indication of the absence of spots in the scanned image found in the master pattern; x-widths and y-widths of spots in the processed image; master spot numbers for at least a portion of the spots in the scanned image; amplitude of spots in the processed image; and integrated density of spots in the processed image.
- 15. A method for processing image data as set forth in claim 11, further comprising the step of subjecting the cut spots to mass spectrometry.
Parent Case Info
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/653,363, filed Aug. 31, 2000.
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09653363 |
Aug 2000 |
US |
Child |
10127536 |
Apr 2002 |
US |