Patent ID: 6917884
Filing Date: 2005-07-12
Classification: G01N,G06K,G06T

Abstract:
1. A method for tracking individual cells during a kinetic cell screening assay, comprising: a) providing cells that possess at least a first luminescently labeled reporter molecule that reports on a cell structure; b) obtaining a structure image from luminescent signals from the at least first luminescently labeled reporter molecule in the cells in a field of view at a first time point; c) creating a structure mask from the structure image obtained at the first time point for individual cells in the field of view; d) defining a reference point relative to each structure mask; e) assigning a cell identification to each reference point in the field of view; f) obtaining a structure image from luminescent signals from the at least first luminescently labeled reporter molecule in the cells in the field of view at a later time point and creating a structure mask from the structure image obtained at the later time point for individual cells in the field of view; g) repeating steps (d)-(e) at the later time point; h) correlating cell identification between the first time point and the later time point by calculating a distance between reference points in the field of view at the first time point and reference points in the field of view at the later time point; and i) defining a cell identification match by identifying reference points in the field of view at the first time point and reference points in the field of view at the later time point that are closest together, thereby tracking individual cells.