Molecular Biology and Genetics Seminars: Dr. Lavdie Rada
Dr. Lavdie Rada (Bahçeşehir University) will be the next guest of the seminar series organized by KHAS Molecular Biology and Genetics Department with her speech “Automated Image Processing for Genotoxicity Testing and Beyond” on Thursday, November 9 at 16:00 at D Block Cinema-A.
Abstract: The comet assay, also known as single-cell gel electrophoresis, serves as a widely utilized method for assessing DNA damage and repair at the individual cell level. This method plays a pivotal role in genetic damage assessment and human biomonitoring within the realms of medical and biological research. Nevertheless, the detection of cellular injury and recovery in the comet assay presents certain challenges. To address these challenges, this framework introduces an algorithm designed to identify a distinct head, representing intact DNA, and a tail, consisting of damaged or fragmented DNA, in images used for genotoxicity testing. Additionally, this approach provides valuable information on the properties of the regions within these images. The proposed method combines a dot enhancement filter to effectively distinguish and aid in the identification of the head in each cell. It also incorporates a multilevel segmentation approach, featuring a watershed-geodesic active contour model, which refines the estimation of the tail. To assess the performance of this algorithm, quantitative evaluations are carried out using annotations provided by biologists. The results obtained from this approach are then compared to those of previous methodologies. Remarkably, the proposed system demonstrates comparable or superior performance to existing systems, all the while maintaining efficiency and avoiding excessive computational costs.
About the Speaker: Lavdie Rada received her B.Sc. in mathematics from the Natural Sciences Faculty in Tirana, Albania, and her M.Sc. degree in applied mathematics from the Polytechnic University of Tirana, Albania. She received her Ph.D. in fast iterative methods for variational models of image segmentation at the Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK. Her research interest in developing elective solvers for variational image processing models continued in a Post-Doctoral fellowship at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey. She has been a Lecturer of mathematical sciences at Bahcesehir University, Istanbul, Turkey, since 2014.