Image analysis as an adjunct to manual HER-2 immunohistochemical review: a diagnostic tool to standardize interpretation.

Aims: Accurate determination of HER-2 status is critical to identify patients for whom trastuzumab treatment will be of benefit. Although the recommended primary method of evaluation is immunohistochemistry, numerous reports of variability in interpretation have raised uncertainty about the reliability of results. Recent guidelines have suggested that image analysis could be an effective tool for achieving consistent interpretation, and this study aimed to assess whether this technology has potential as a diagnostic support tool.

Antagonistic effect of divalent cations Ca2+ and Mg2+ on the morphological development of Streptomyces hygroscopicus var. geldanus.

Supplementation of the divalent cations calcium and magnesium to submerged cultures of Streptomyces hygroscopicus var. geldanus greatly influenced morphological development and secondary metabolite synthesis. The disparate response could be explained in terms of the differential effects of Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions on cell surface hydrophobicity.

Virtual microscopy as an enabler of automated/quantitative assessment of protein expression in TMAs.

Tissue Microarrays facilitate high-throughput immuohistochemistry; however, there are key bottlenecks apparent in their analysis, particularly when conducting microscope-based manual reviews. Traditionally Tissue Microarray assessments were performed using a microscope where results were either transcribed or dictated and subsequently entered into flat-file spreadsheets. This process is labour intensive, prone to error and negates the advantages of the high-throughput Tissue Microarray format.

The influence of morphology on geldanamycin production in submerged fermentations of Streptomyces hygroscopicus var. geldanus.

The diverse morphology of the filamentous organism Streptomyces hygroscopicus var. geldanus was characterised by image analysis under various environmental conditions. In the presence of surfactant compounds, a significant decrease in the mean pellet diameter was observed.