Wavelet-based Synchronization of Nongated Confocal Microscopy Slice-Sequences for 4D Cardiac Imaging in Living Embryos
Michael Liebling, California Institute of Technology

Seminar • 09 February 2005 • BM.1.119

More Info ...Abstract
With the availability of new confocal laser scanning microscopes, fast biological processes, such as the blood flow in living organisms at early stages of the embryonic development, can be observed with unprecedented time resolution. When the object under study has a periodic motion (e.g., a beating embryonic heart), the imaging capabilities can be extended to retrieve 4D data. We acquire nongated slice sequences at increasing depths and retrospectively synchronize them to build dynamic 3D volumes. I will present a synchronization procedure based on the temporal correlation of wavelet features. The method is designed to handle large data sets and to be immune to artifacts that are frequent in fluorescence imaging techniques such as bleaching, nonuniform contrast, and photon-related noise. This method has allowed us to create 4-dimensional working models of the heart and extract quantitative information on flow and heartwall motions from different stages of heart development. This is joint work with A.S. Forouhar, M. Gharib, S.E. Fraser, and M.E. Dickinson.