Though multiplex tissue imaging can help to diagnose and understand complex diseases, it heavily depends on the user’s experience in reviewing, annotating, and describing tissue features. Could readily available software ease the process by supporting knowledge and result sharing? In a new paper, researchers describe the landscape of software available for analyzing tissue images and highlight the need for interactive online guides that can help histopathologists make complex images more accessible for non-specialists (1).
They demonstrate this concept via a software interface called Minerva – an open-source platform that allows users to explore large multiplex images via web browsers. Minerva combines multi-omic and tissue atlas features to allow pathologists to move across images and tries to mimic specialized histology expertise. What did the authors conclude? It comes as no surprise, but they state that “such interactive narrative guides can effectively disseminate digital histology data and aid their interpretation (1).”
References
R Rashid et al., Nat Biomed Eng, [Online ahead of print] (2021). PMID: 34750536.