Adaptive techniques for microarray image analysis with related quality assessment

We propose novel techniques for microarray image analysis. In particular, we describe an overall pipeline able to solve the most common problems of microarray image analysis. We pro- pose the microarray image rotation algorithm (MIRA) and the statis- tical gridding pipeline (SGRIP) as two advanced modules devoted to restoring the original microarray grid orientation and to detecting, the correct geometrical information about each spot of input mi- croarray, respectively. Both solutions work by making use of statis- tical observations, obtaining adaptive and reliable information about each spot property. They improve the performance of the microarray image segmentation pipeline (MISP) we recently developed. MIRA, MISP, and SGRIP modules have been developed as plug-ins for an advanced framework for microarray image analysis. A new quality measure able to effectively evaluate the adaptive segmentation with respect to the fixed (e.g., nonadaptive) circle segmentation of each spot is proposed. Experiments confirm the effectiveness of the pro- posed techniques in terms of visual and numerical data. © 2007 SPIE