The purpose of this project is collaborative development and application of image processing and information processing algorithms for use in basic and clinical research. Examples of application areas include: MRI, CT, Ultrasound, PET, SPECT, confocal and electron microscopy, gel electrophoresis, and information content of macromolecular sequences. Dr. J. Ellis has collaborated with Dr. T. Schneider et al, NCI to perform DNA splice site analyses. Work continues on analysis of the human neurofibromatosis 2 (NF2) gene. More experimental work must be done to clarify the relationships between predicted splicing and experimental cDNA analysis. Further analyses have been done on DNA pieces from human glycerol kinase deficiency (GKD) genes, yielding interesting proteomic results. Good results have been obtained on alternative splicing in human Cystinuria genes. One paper has been published in this area. Substantial analysis has been done on the effects of splicing mutations in a DNA repair gene in the Xeroderma Pigmentosum Variant family of disorders. Dr. C-N Chen conducted a feasibility study of a phase correction algorithm for electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) imaging. Due to the nature of the signal and the detection system, a large fraction of the initial signal is lost in the process. An extrapolation of the signals to time zero, in the presence of noise, became unreliable, and thus the collaborators concluded that unphased, magnitude data have to be used. Dr. C-N Chen is exploring the combined use of a software package, OpenDX developed by IBM, and ImageJ, a Java based software package developed at NIH, for general purpose image processing and 3D visualization.
