Patent ID: 7155050

Claim:
In a method of comparing multiple samples of cell extract containing a plurality of components comprising: preparing at least two samples of cell extract from at least two groups of cells; exposing each of said samples of said cell extract to one of a set of matched markers to bind the marker to the cell extract to label the cell extract, each marker within said set of markers being capable of binding to the cell extract and can be individually detected from all other markers within said set; mixing said samples of labeled cell extract to form a mixture; separating said mixture to separate the components within the cell extract; obtaining at least two electronic images of the separated mixture by detection of the individual markers, each image being represented by detection of a marker different from the others; the improvement comprising: creating one resultant electronic image (I res ) of the obtained at least two electronic images by additively combining corresponding pixel intensity values (p 1 , . . . , p n ; p′ 1 , . . . , p′ N ) according to predetermined function; analyzing the resultant image in order to identify spot analysis areas, wherein the spot analysis areas are subjected to a filtration step in order to classify the areas according to predetermined criteria related to the three dimensional topography of said areas; and applying said identified spot analysis areas on the respective at least two electronic images for evaluating said areas in order to detect spots representing components of said cell extracts.