Systems for analyzing microtissue arrays

A computer program product embodied in a computer readable medium comprising:

• computer executable code for capturing an image of a stained tissue microarray stained with a first stain and a second stain, the image including a plurality of specimen images;
• computer executable code for analyzing the image to identify a first color vector corresponding to the first stain and a second color vector corresponding to the second stain;
• and
• computer executable code for measuring a presence of each one of the first color vector and the second color vector in one or more of the plurality of specimen images.

A system comprising:

• staining means for staining a tissue microarray with a first stain and a second stain to obtain a stained tissue microarray, each of the first stain and the second stain selectively staining portions of the tissue microarray;
• imaging means for capturing an image of the stained tissue microarray, the image including a plurality of specimen images;
• first computing means for analyzing the image to identify a first color vector corresponding to the first stain and a second color vector corresponding to the second stain;
• and
• second computing means for measuring a presence of each one of the first color vector and the second color vector in one or more of the plurality of specimen images.

A method comprising:

• staining a tissue microarray with a first stain and a second stain to obtain a stained tissue microarray, each of the first stain and the second stain selectively staining portions of the tissue microarray;
• capturing an image of the stained tissue microarray, the stained tissue microarray including a plurality of discs, each disc including a sample of a biological specimen;
• locating a first group of discs from the plurality of discs using one or more visual features of the first group of discs;
• identifying a grid defined by the first group of discs;
• locating a second group of discs from the plurality of discs using the grid to locate discs which do not include the one or more visual features of the first group of discs;
• capturing a specimen image of each one of the first group of discs and the second group of discs to provide a plurality of specimen images;
• analyzing the image of the stained tissue microarray to identify a first color vector corresponding to the first stain and a second color vector corresponding to the second stain;
• and
• measuring a presence of each one of the first color vector and the second color vector in one or more of the plurality of specimen images.