Imaging Platform

Images of cells, when suitably stained, contain a vast amount of information about cellular state and are generated by the hundreds of thousands in experiments to determine the functions of genes and to identify useful chemicals for research and for therapeutics.

The Broad's Imaging Platform is a world leader in developing advanced methods to quantify and mine the rich information present in cellular images to yield biological discoveries. We develop open-source software tools and help biologists to apply them to significant questions in the life sciences.

The platform’s major activities include:

• Image analysis - We develop advanced image analysis methods, with an emphasis on high-throughput screening. Many cellular phenotypes of interest to researchers require custom image analysis methods. We develop and test new algorithms and implement them into an easy-to-use, open-source software package called CellProfiler.
• Data analysis - We develop advanced data mining methods, with an emphasis on image-based screening. Image-based screens generate extremely large, multidimensional data sets because images contain rich, quantifiable information for every individual cell. We develop and test new methods and procedures to statistically analyze and mine this data and implement them into an easy-to-use, open-source software package called CellProfiler Analyst.

The Imaging Platform also takes a systems biology/functional genomics approach with image-based screens and other large-scale experiments, integrating this data in order to generate biological hypotheses.