Descriptive no more: the dawn of high-throughput microscopy

Abstract

The next revolution in microscopy is upon us: it is High-Throughput Imaging (HTI). In HTI large numbers of images from many samples are acquired and analyzed. This has become possible due to a confluence of dramatic progress in microscope engineering, enabling efficient image collection, and the availability of high computing power for data analysis. Combining HTI with genome-wide RNA interference (RNAi)-based gene knockdown technology offers a powerful approach for unbiased discovery of cellular mechanisms.

Figure 1. The evolution of depicting mitosis

(A) Drawings of mitotic stages in newt cells described by Walther Fleming in the late 1800s [25]. (B) Micrographs of mitosis in fixed PtK1 cells revealed by antibody stainings and fluorescence microscopy (actin, red; microtubules, green; centrosomes (gamma-tubulin), magenta; and DNA, blue (courtesy of Dr Alexey Khodjakov)

Figure 2. From HTI screening to comprehensive databases

HTI screening together with validation and follow-up experiments make up the experimental part of HTI screening (upper grey panel). The organization of the resulting primary information into a comprehensive database requires an interdisciplinary approach (lower grey panel).