Title :
Automated measurements of tails in the single cell gel electrophoresis assay
Author :
Rivest, J.-F. ; Tang, M. ; McLean, J. ; Johnson, F.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Ottawa Univ., Ont., Canada
Abstract :
This paper presents a method to automate a new technique, which has been developed to detect primary DNA damage of individual cells. It is based on single cell gel electrophoresis: the cells are placed in a gel, and then are prepared in order to free and unwind the DNA. After electrophoresis and staining, the resulting images appear as `comets´, the lighter fragments being at the tail end. Because small DNA fragments are pieces of damaged DNA strands, it is possible to assess DNA damage by measuring morphological characteristics of the comets
Keywords :
DNA; biological techniques; biology computing; biophysics; cellular biophysics; computer vision; computerised instrumentation; electrophoresis; medical image processing; molecular biophysics; DNA damage; DNA fragments; automated measurement; comets; damaged DNA strands; morphological characteristics; primary DNA damage; single cell gel electrophoresis assay; staining; tail end; DNA; Electric variables measurement; Electrokinetics; Image edge detection; Performance evaluation; Pixel; Protection; Robustness; Shape; Tail;
Conference_Titel :
Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference, 1996. IMTC-96. Conference Proceedings. Quality Measurements: The Indispensable Bridge between Theory and Reality., IEEE
Conference_Location :
Brussels
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3312-8
DOI :
10.1109/IMTC.1996.507358
