Biology subjects

Kaern, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Kaern, M..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2020

YeastNet: Deep Learning Enabled Accurate Segmentation of Budding Yeast Cells in Bright-field Microscopy

Accurate and efficient segmentation of live-cell images is critical in maximising data extraction and knowledge generation from high-throughput biology experiments. Despite recent development of deep learning tools for biomedical imaging applications, great demand for automated segmentation tools for high-resolution live-cell microscopy images remains in order to accelerate the analysis. YeastNet dramatically improves the performance of non-trainable classic algorithm, and performs considerably better than the current state-of-the-art yeast cell segmentation tools. We have designed and trained a U-Net convolutional network (named YeastNet) to conduct semantic segmentation on bright-field microscopy images and generate segmentation masks for cell labelling and tracking. YeastNet enables accurate automatic segmentation and tracking of yeast cells in biomedical applications. YeastNet is freely provided with model weights as a Python package on GitHub. https://github.com/kaernlab/YeastNet

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2020

Challenges in Undergraduate Synthetic Biology Training: Insights from a Canadian iGEM Student Perspective

The last two decades have seen vigorous activity in synthetic biology research and ever-increasing applications of synthetic biology technologies. However, pedagogical research on synthetic biology is scarce, especially when compared to some scientific and engineering disciplines. Within Canada, there are only three universities that formally teach synthetic biology programs; two of which are at the undergraduate level. Many Canadian undergraduate students are instead introduced to synthetic biology through participation in the annual International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition where they work in design teams to conceive of and execute a synthetic biology project that they present at an international jamboree. We surveyed the Canadian landscape of synthetic biology education through the experience of students from the Canadian iGEM teams of 2019. Using a thematic codebook analysis, we gathered insights to generate recommendations that could empower future iGEM team operations and inform educators about best practices in teaching undergraduate synthetic biology.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2018

Human Gene Expression Variability and its Dependence on Methylation and Aging

BackgroundPhenotypic variability of human populations is partly the result of gene polymorphism and differential gene expression. As such, understanding the molecular basis for diversity requires identifying genes with both high and low population expression variance and identifying the mechanisms underlying their expression control. Key issues remain unanswered with respect to expression variability in human populations. The role of gene methylation as well as the contribution that age, sex and tissue-specific factors have on expression variability are not well understood. ResultsHere we used a novel method that accounts for sampling error to classify human genes based on their expression variability in normal human breast and brain tissues. We find that high expression variability is almost exclusively unimodal, indicating that variance is not the result of segregation into distinct expression states. Genes with high expression variability differ markedly between tissues and we find that genes with high population expression variability are likely to have age-, but not sex-dependent expression. Lastly, we find that methylation likely has a key role in controlling expression variability insofar as genes with low expression variability are likely to be non-methylated. ConclusionsWe conclude that gene expression variability in the human population is likely to be important in tissue development and identity, methylation, and in natural biological aging. The expression variability of a gene is an important functional characteristic of the gene itself and the classification of a gene as one with Hyper-Variability or Hypo-Variability in a human population or in a specific tissue should be useful in the identification of important genes that functionally regulate development or disease.

bioinformatics↗