Automatic Gridding of DNA Microarray Images using Optimum Subimage

Microarray is the one of the most promising tool available for researchers in life sciences to study gene expression profile.Image processing is the first step in knowledge discovery from the microarray. The process of extracting features consist of three stages: gridding, segmentation and quantification. Gridding is to assign each spot with individual coordinates. There are different levels of sophisticated image processing algorithms, which requires certain level of user intervention for accurately gridding the microarray images. This paper presents a fully automatic grid alignment algorithm for detecting the microarray image spots. The approach is based on the detection of an optimum subimage. Using Intensity projection profile of this subimage the parameters required for gridding are calculated. Experimental result shows that this method is highly accurate when compared to a previous method of gridding that uses intensity projection profile. This algorithm was implemented using Matlab software and found very effective for gridding arrays with low intensity, poor quality spots.