Patent ID: 9589174
Date: 2017-03-07
CPC Classifications: G06K,G16B,H01J

Claim:
1. A mass spectrometry data processing method, said method comprising: generating mass spectrometry data that is obtained from each of a plurality of micro-regions that are set within a predetermined two-dimensional area on a specimen; extracting specific sites from microscopy images, which are obtained by labeling specific sites in said two-dimensional area or a portion thereof with a visualization marker; categorizing each of said micro-regions into a plurality of clusters based on similarity/dissimilarity of mass spectrometry data for each of the micro-regions so that micro-regions of high similarity belong to the same cluster; and determining the total number of clusters based on the results of a comparison between the spatial distribution of the specific sites that are extracted and the spatial distribution of all micro-regions that belong to one of the plurality of clusters into which each of said micro-regions are classified.