Lemkin P F
Image Processing Section, National Institute of Health, Frederick, MD, USA.
Electrophoresis. 1997 Mar-Apr;18(3-4):461-70. doi: 10.1002/elps.1150180321.
Scientists around the world often work on similar data so the need to share results and compare data arises periodically. We describe a method of comparing two two-dimensional (2-D) protein gels of similar samples created in different laboratories to help identify or suggest protein spot identification. Now that 2-D gels and associated databases frequently appear on the Internet, this opens up the possibility of visually comparing one's own experimental 2-D gel image data with data from another gel in a remote Internet database. In general, there are a few ways to compare images: (i) slide one gel (autoradiograph or stained gel) over the other while back-illuminated, or (ii) build a 2-D gel computer database from both gels after scanning and analyzing these gels. These are impractical since in the first case the gel from the Internet database is not locally available. In the second, the costs of building a multi-gel database solely to answer the question of whether a spot is the same spot may be excessive if only a single visual comparison is needed. We describe a distributed gel comparison program (URL: http://www-lmmb.ncifcrf.gov/flicker) which runs on any World Wide Web (WWW) connected computer and is invoked from a Java-capable web browser. One gel image is read from any Internet 2-D gel database (e.g. SWISS-2DPAGE) and the other may reside on the investigator's computer. Images may be more easily compared by first applying spatial warping or other transforms interactively on the user's computer. First, regions of interest are "landmarked" with several corresponding points in each gel image, then one gel image is warped to the geometry of the other. As the two gels are rapidly alternated, or flickered, in the same window, the user can slide one gel past the other to visually align corresponding spots by matching local morphology. This flicker-comparison technique may be applied to analyzing other types of one-dimensional and 2-D biomedical images.
世界各地的科学家经常处理相似的数据，因此定期会出现共享结果和比较数据的需求。我们描述了一种比较在不同实验室创建的相似样品的两张二维（2-D）蛋白质凝胶的方法，以帮助识别或提示蛋白质斑点的鉴定。鉴于二维凝胶和相关数据库经常出现在互联网上，这使得将自己的实验二维凝胶图像数据与远程互联网数据库中另一张凝胶的数据进行可视化比较成为可能。一般来说，有几种比较图像的方法：（i）在背光照亮的情况下将一张凝胶（放射自显影片或染色凝胶）滑过另一张凝胶，或者（ii）在扫描和分析这些凝胶后从两张凝胶构建二维凝胶计算机数据库。这些方法都不切实际，因为在第一种情况下，来自互联网数据库的凝胶无法在本地获取。在第二种情况下，如果只需要进行一次视觉比较，仅仅为了回答一个斑点是否是同一个斑点而构建一个多凝胶数据库的成本可能过高。我们描述了一个分布式凝胶比较程序（网址：http://www-lmmb.ncifcrf.gov/flicker），它可以在任何连接到万维网（WWW）的计算机上运行，并从支持Java的网络浏览器中调用。一张凝胶图像从任何互联网二维凝胶数据库（如SWISS-2DPAGE）读取，另一张可以保存在研究者的计算机上。通过首先在用户计算机上交互式地应用空间扭曲或其他变换，可以更轻松地比较图像。首先，在每个凝胶图像中用几个对应点标记感兴趣的区域，然后将一张凝胶图像扭曲成另一张的几何形状。当两张凝胶在同一窗口中快速交替或闪烁时，用户可以将一张凝胶滑过另一张，通过匹配局部形态在视觉上对齐相应的斑点。这种闪烁比较技术可应用于分析其他类型的一维和二维生物医学图像。
