Visualization and data analysis

Basic data processing

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Characterizing protrusions

I’ve been responsible for condensing this dynamic 3D data to static 2D images that communicate the salient observations the biology researchers interested in.

Quantification of cell movement

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The first man to witness a live cell under a microscope.
In 1674 described the algae Spirogyra.

There is something present in his letters that is just as true in science today, but that sometimes we can lose sight of, which is this amazing sense of wonder. He describes seeing cells move in a drop of rain water, he doesn’t fully know what they are, but he says it’s "a sight I found mightily diverting". This letter was translated into english by the royal society in London, so i think that’s British for: "ridiculously amazing".

". . . And though I must have seen quite 20 of these little animals on their long tails alongside one another very gently moving, with outstretched bodies and straightened-out tails; yet in an instant, as it were, they pulled their bodies and their tails together, and no sooner had they contracted their bodies and tails, than they began to stick their tails out again very leisurely, and stayed thus some time continuing their gentle motion: which sight I found mightily diverting.”  December 25, 1702

Technological advancement of lattice light sheet microscopy allows for 3D live-cell imaging

Moving forward about 400 years to the first images of a live cell moving captured in 3D.  One of the things I love about working on this project is how beautiful the data is. Eric Betzig’s  innovation in microscopy has enabled us to view cells moving over the course of mins in astonishing detail. However, the visual analysis tools to handle this data did not exist. 

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Bi-Chang et al. Science 24 October 2014:  Vol. 346 no. 6208
Betzig Lab, HHMI, Noble Prize 2014