Invention Reference Number
This technology addresses the challenge of accurately measuring bacterial cell envelope thickness and anisotropy from low-dose cryogenic electron microscopy images. Traditional methods rely on manual, time-intensive measurements that lack consistency across the entire cell. The platform provides an automated, high-throughput computational approach to generate full-contour membrane thickness profiles with improved accuracy and reproducibility. This enables more reliable analysis of microbial cell, structure, populations, and behavior under varying conditions and supports advances in microbiology, materials interaction studies, and imaging-based research workflows.
Description
The invention is a computational workflow that combines advanced image analysis with automated geometric processing to quantify bacterial cell envelope thickness, radially across the entire Gram-negative microbial cell, enabling population level analysis of thickness. It operates on low-dose cryogenic electron microscopy images and uses a trained model to identify key structural membrane boundaries, followed by a reconstruction of cell geometry into continuous contours suitable for measurement. The system then applies complementary analytical approaches to calculate the outer membrane-to-inner membrane distance, corresponding to the bacterial cell envelope thickness across the full cell perimeter, capturing variations in different regions such as cell poles and side.
This integrated workflow enables continuous, high-resolution thickness profiling and supports large-scale dataset analysis through automated batch processing. It also generates additional structural insights, including directional variation and population-level trends. By eliminating manual intervention and standardizing measurements, the platform improves consistency and scalability while maintaining high analytical fidelity across diverse imaging conditions.
Benefits
- Automated, high-throughput bacterial cell envelope thickness measurement
- Improved accuracy and reproducibility across full cell contour
- Reduced operator bias and manual effort
- Scalable analysis for large imaging datasets
Applications and Industries
- Biotechnology and microbiology research
- Electron microscopy and imaging platforms
- Industrial microbiology and surface interaction studies
- Pharmaceutical and biological R&D
Contact
To learn more about this technology, email partnerships@ornl.gov or call 865-574-1051.
