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Appreciating Massive Data Sets from Tiny Specimens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

William A. Mohler
William A. Mohler*
Affiliation:
Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Center for Biomedical Imaging Technology University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT, 06030, USA
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Abstract

Continuing improvements on laser scanning microscopy now allow easy acquisition of multi-gigabyte-sized data sets from single living specimens. These multi-dimensional data comprise stacks of serial optical sections (3D) collected repeatedly over time (4D), often recording separate signal channels simultaneously (5D). in our work imaging developmental and cell biological processes in living embryos, we try to take advantage of the full scope of spatial and temporal detail that microscopes can now accumulate. Aside from the obvious difficulties of data management and archival, we still struggle to visually appreciate both the holistic view of the specimen and the smaller dynamic details that we know are captured within these recordings. Ideally, the multi-dimensional microscopist should view and analyze the specimen as the full set of tens of thousands of images. Although strides have been made, visualization software and computer hardware for browsing and analyzing multi-dimensional data are not yet up to the task of giving the microscopist full kinesthetic access to the thriving subject that the microscope hardware and software have captured. Several pieces of software allow the viewer to fluidly browse the original optical sections through space and over time. Moving beyond the constraints of the raw image plane by rendering, re-slicing, digitally dissecting, and animating the time-varying volumes is the task that is currently so demanding that all approaches are only partially satisfactory.

Type
Challenges of Confocal Microscopy in the 21st Century (Organized by S. Paddock)
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 7 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis 2001, Microscopy Society of America 59th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 35th Annual Meeting, Long Beach, California August 5-9, 2001 , August 2001 , pp. 1006 - 1007
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2001

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References

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