Patent ID: 9552416
Date: 2017-01-24
CPC Classifications: G06F,G16B

Claim:
1. A method executed by a computer processor for identifying clusters of fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) data points associated with one or more light intensity values measured for a particular cell, a group of cells, a sample of cells or a combination thereof comprising: (A) constructing a normalized lattice L in d dimensions, wherein said lattice has an equal number of intervals in all directions and consists of M intervals in each direction, where M is a positive integer that defines Md lattice points, by (B) calculating weights for said lattice points using one or more of said data points according to a weighting rule in accordance with formula:  where w (C) determining a density at said lattice points relating a weight at a lattice point to weights at nearby lattice points using a density function, wherein determining the density includes computing an estimate of a density surface {circumflex over (f)}(y  where l=(l (D) creating, for a lattice point, a directional association with at least one other lattice point using an association rule by establishing and removing pointers between neighboring lattice points by successively executing a series of evaluations for all lattice points y (E) following said directional associations between lattice points to determine terminal states for one or more pointer paths, wherein a terminal state is defined as a lattice point that does not have a surrounding point that meets said association rule in (D); (F) assigning each data point to a lattice point according to an assignment rule comprising the steps of (G) determining a cluster for said FACS data points based on said terminal states of said pointer paths; (H) selecting a particular cell, a group of cells, a sample of cells or a combination thereof based on said cluster for said FACS data points; and (I) providing clustering results based on said selecting step (H) in a hierarchical display via a user interface to identify said particular cell, said group of cells, said sample of cells or said combination thereof as belonging to a particular cluster.