Call for Papers:

The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers that work on the emerging interface of engineering and biological research. The convergence of technical developments that enable automated microscopy imaging at higher resolution and throughput and life sciences applications that require the analysis of a very large number of samples radically changes the traditional role of microscopy. As opposed to analyzing a very limited number of samples manually, it is now possible to automatically analyze a large number of biological samples at the cellular and sub-cellular scale and monitor their dynamics over time. Not only will this approach provide biologists with an unprecedented amount of quantitative information, it will also allow the investigation of the inherent variation of biological systems of interest.

Algorithms that allow the automatic analysis of such data sets are becoming a crucial component of microscopy workflow. These datasets pose a number of challenges that are very distinct from conventional clinical imagery in their size and abundance, the detail of relevant features, and their statistics. Sophisticated algorithms are necessary to process such imagery and extract biologically relevant features and information.

While certain applications of high-throughput microscopy of very simple biological model systems are already established, biologists are still exploring the potential of this automated approach. The study of complex model systems, the analysis of whole organisms of small critters, and in-vivo models will pose novel challenges that need to be addressed. The challenges increase many-fold when animal systems for disease and cancer are considered. The proposed workshop will be the fourth workshop in this series. The first workshop was held as a MICCAI workshop in Copenhagen in 2006. In 2007 the workshop was held as an independent one-day event in Piscataway, NJ. A one-day workshop was held in conjunction with MICCAI in New York last year.

To facilitate this exchange the workshop will focus on a set of biological applications and image analysis challenges. In particular we are seeking contributions in the following areas:

• Segmentation and feature extraction at cellular and sub-cellular scales
• Automatic analysis of dynamic processes in in vivo and model systems
• Analysis of tissue structure and their representation (micro-vasculature, tracking of neurons, identification of cell populations, etc.)
• Reconstruction of cell morphologies and lineage studies
• Atlases for small critter imaging (zebrafish, c. elegans,drisophola)

Focus areas for biological applications will include but are not limited to

• Understanding the heterogeneity of cancer and its environment
• Understanding neuro-anatomy at the cellular level
• Biomarker discovery

We plan a one-day or two-day event, which will include orals and one poster session. The workshop will be structured into different sessions, which will alternate between image analysis challenges and biological application areas. At least one presentation in each session will give an introduction or tutorial overview with the goal of communicating the existing capabilities and challenges to non-specialists. A panel discussion on the future of automated microscopy and its role for biological research will be organized as part of this workshop.

Dates:
June 27, 2009 (Extended to July 5, 2009) - Submission of Full Papers and Application Abstracts
August 8, 2009 - Reviews will be available. Notifications have already been sent.
August 17, 2009 - Submission of Final manuscript
September 3/4, 2009 - Workshop Date