Maximum-Intensity-Linking for Segmentation of Fluorescence-Stained Cells

Fluorescence microscopy is a key technology for the development of new agents in the area of pharmaceutic biotechnology and an important element of computer aided diagnosis and prognosis of tumor cells. A critical component of automatic image analysis methods for cell screening applications is cell segmentation. That is, in order to determine any specific cell features, the individual cells have to be segmented from each other and the background. We propose an approach called ’maximum-intensity-linking’ for the segmentation of fluorescence stained cells that is related to classic watershed methods. It is simple, robust and general enough to be easily adapted to changing segmentation requirements.