Biotechnology Center, Center for Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering, Technische Universität Dresden, Tatzberg 47/49, Dresden, 01307, Germany.
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin, Staudtstr. 2, Erlangen, 91058, Germany.
BMC Bioinformatics. 2020 Jun 3;21(1):226. doi: 10.1186/s12859-020-03553-y.
Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) is an established tool for the marker-free classification and quantitative characterization of biological samples. For spherical objects, such as cells in suspension, microgel beads, or liquid droplets, a single QPI image is sufficient to extract the radius and the average refractive index. This technique is invaluable, as it allows the characterization of large sample populations at high measurement rates. However, until now, no universal software existed that could perform this type of analysis. Besides the choice of imaging modality and the variety in imaging software, the main difficulty has been to automate the entire analysis pipeline from raw data to ensemble statistics.
We present DryMass, a powerful tool for QPI that covers all relevant steps from loading experimental data (multiple file formats supported), computing the phase data (built-in, automated hologram analysis), performing phase background corrections (offset, tilt, second order polynomial) to fitting scattering models (light projection, Rytov approximation, Mie simulations) to spherical phase objects for the extraction of dry mass, radius, and average refractive index. The major contribution of DryMass is a user-convenient, reliable, reproducible, and automated analysis pipeline for an arbitrary number of QPI datasets of arbitrary sizes.
DryMass is a leap forward for data analysis in QPI, as it not only makes it easier to visualize raw QPI data and reproduce previous results in the field, but it also opens up QPI analysis to users without a background in programming or phase imaging.
定量相位成像（QPI）是一种用于对生物样本进行无标记分类和定量特征描述的成熟工具。对于球形物体，如悬浮细胞、微凝胶珠或液滴，单个 QPI 图像足以提取半径和平均折射率。这项技术非常有价值，因为它可以在高测量速率下对大量样本进行特征描述。然而，到目前为止，还没有通用的软件可以执行这种类型的分析。除了成像方式的选择和成像软件的多样性之外，主要的困难是将从原始数据到总体统计的整个分析流程自动化。
我们提出了 DryMass，这是一款用于 QPI 的强大工具，涵盖了从加载实验数据（支持多种文件格式）、计算相位数据（内置、自动全息分析）、执行相位背景校正（偏移、倾斜、二次多项式）到拟合散射模型（光投影、Rytov 近似、Mie 模拟）到球形相位物体的所有相关步骤，以提取干质量、半径和平均折射率。DryMass 的主要贡献是为任意数量的任意大小的 QPI 数据集提供了一个用户友好、可靠、可重复且自动化的分析流程。
DryMass 是 QPI 数据分析的一个飞跃，因为它不仅使可视化原始 QPI 数据和重现该领域以前的结果变得更加容易，而且还为没有编程或相位成像背景的用户打开了 QPI 分析的大门。
