Analysis of cortical structures from 3D live imaging of C. elegans embryos

Jean Haizmann

Bachelor Semester Project

Section of Computer Science, EPFL

July 2016

Abstract

This project tries to compute the volume of C. elegans embryo cells sampled through Spinning disc confocal microscopy. This method enables data to be high precision and, in addition to green-fluorescent protein, devoid of noise. The aim is to help biologist find some viable mutant with totally symmetric division. Therefore, this plug-in tracks cells through time and mitosis. This helps them to measure the volume to see if there is any form of compensation resulting of the asymmetric division. The project implements an alternative approach which is different from other’s in the way that the nuclei do not need to be marked. Many transformation algorithms are used to perform the right pipeline, as ellipsoid fitting, steerable filter, distance map and watershed.