Digital Molecule Quantitation

About

Technology: Researchers have developed a software-based innovation to the problem of protein-protein interaction (PPI) mapping. In this method, digital data generated by conventional confocal laser scanning microscopy of antibody-stained bio-specimens is the starting point for quantifying differential protein-protein interaction between two biomarkers.This software-based approach utilizes Bayesian Inference and Information Theoretic characterizations of protein clustering and protein-protein co-localization to arrive at a statistical quantification of differential protein-protein interaction.  This method is a vast improvement over the current art, which attempt to identify differential PPI patterns based on correlation-based quantifiers such as Pearson's Correlation Coefficient. There are many data types in which correlation-based measures are cannot quantify differential PPI. Alternative computational solutions have not been well described to address this issue, largely because most in the microscopy field have discounted the use of conventional confocal microscopy towards quantitative analysis (favoring its use largely for qualitative visualizations).