Neuron image analysis and bioinformatics
Dr. Stephen T.C.
Wong
Abstract
Exploring the role of neuron’s
morphological change in brain function or neurological disorders is a long-time
goal in many neuroscience fields. The arrival of digital microscopy, such as two-photon and
confocal laser scanning microscopy, coupled with a large arsenal of fluorescent
and other labeling methods to study the neuron 3D structure and dynamics in cell
culture, brain tissue culture, and even live animals, has become a powerful technique that allows the neuroscientists
to gather objective, quantitative and reproducible cell-based phenotype information. It offers
tremendous value to localize, identify and characterize brain cells and
subcellular components at
different animal models. It
enables better understanding of cellular changes underlying the pathogenesis of
various neurological disorders.
Nevertheless,
there are significant bioinformatics challenges in processing, managing,
analyzing, modeling, and mining large volumes of multi-dimensional neuronal images
generated by high resolution optical microscopy in studying dynamic neuronal information. The existing bioimaging tools are
extremely limited in their scope and capacity. Currently, the scientists have
to rely on slow and restrictive manual analysis to extract information. Image
informatics has become the rate-limiting factor in neuroscience imaging studies.
We aim to fill this gap by developing an image
informatics platform, Neuronal Image Quantitator (NeuronIQ),
with increased capacity to identify and track neuronal objects and to analyze
and quantitate object features extracted from the large amounts of images
generated by optical microscopy, providing a complete picture of the evolution
of the morphological features and behaviors of neurons and related cellular
objects in time and space, and under different experimental conditions. This
would lead to rapid cell-based assays to obtain and analyze broad ranges of
neuronal phenotypes and facilitate the extraction of previously undecipherable
information from neuronal morphology. In this talk, I will present some of the ongoing work
and applications of NeuronIQ in deciphering biological mechanisms and behaviors
of neurological disorders.
Biography:
Stephen Wong, PhD (CS), PE (EE), is the founding Director
and Principal Investigator of HCNR Center for Bioinformatics and an Associate
Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women’s
Hospital, Boston, USA. Dr. Wong has
over 20 year R&D experience in academia and industry worldwide. He is a hybrid scientist who has
successfully straddled the fields of computing and biomedicine. His current research is focused on new
techniques of biomedical imaging and bioinformatics in disease understanding
and management, in particular, neurodegeneration and aging.
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Date: |
November 19, 2004 (Friday) |
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Time: |
4:00 – 5:00pm |
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Place: |
Room 517, Meng Wah
Complex |
* organized by the group on Numerical
Mathematics and Applied Analysis (NMAA)
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All are welcome |