Systems and methods for classifying blood cells

A machine-learning-based digital staining and classification system comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory coupled to the processor, the memory including a trained machine-learning (ML) model and a multi-class classifier coupled to the trained ML model;
• and
• computer program instructions stored in the memory that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• digitally stain an image of a blood sample using the trained ML model so as to generate a digitally-stained image;
• extract one or more intermediate features generated by the trained machine-learning model during digital staining of the image;
• provide the one or more extracted intermediate features to the trained multi-class classifier;
• and
• employ the trained multi-class classifier to classify at least one component within the blood sample based on the one or more extracted intermediate features.