A BaSiC tool for background and shading correction of optical microscopy images.

Klare Sicht auf Stammzellentwicklung

Clear view on stem cell development

Quantitative analysis of bioimaging data is often skewed by both shading in space and background variation in time. We introduce BaSiC, an image correction method based on low-rank and sparse decomposition which solves both issues. In comparison to existing shading correction tools, BaSiC achieves high-accuracy with significantly fewer input images, works for diverse imaging conditions and is robust against artefacts. Moreover, it can correct temporal drift in time-lapse microscopy data and thus improve continuous single-cell quantification. BaSiC requires no manual parameter setting and is available as a Fiji/ImageJ plugin.

A new image correction software simplifies quantification of stem cells. Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) show in ‘Nature Communications’ how it corrects images to make hitherto hidden development steps visible.