Patent ID: 8831889
Filing Date: 2014-09-09
Classification: G01N,G06F,G16B

Abstract:
1. A method of quantifying and validating differences between measured values of fluorescence intensities obtained using a flow cytometer or other fluorescence-based instrument, the method comprising: a) running multiple sets of standardized particles through the instrument to generate at least one calibration histogram for each set of particles, the histograms containing fluorescence intensity values; b) calibrating, with a computer coupled with the instrument, a distance function configured to measure distances between the calibration histograms generated by the sets of standardized particles, comprising: where h and f are histograms, and A comprises a bin-to-bin dissimilarity matrix that is an n×n positive semi-definite matrix, n being the number of bins in histograms h and f; and and c) applying, by the computer, the constructed metric to a set of flow cytometry histograms generated by the instrument for a plurality of biological samples, to determine distances between the histograms; d) constructing and applying a statistical test, by the computer, using the constructed metric to determine a statistical significance of the distances between the histograms; and e) determining, by the computer, whether the histogram results from the biological samples are reliable based on the statistical significance.