THIS week: Cell analysis
UNDERSTANDING the make-up of cells can provide vital clues to a wide range of diseases. The Etch a Cell science project, launched in 2017 and run by the Francis Crick Institute in London, asked members of the public to analyse images of cells produced using electron microscopes (which show particularly high resolution images).
After online training, volunteers used their computer to draw around a cell feature known as the nuclear envelope — the barrier that separates genetic information or DNA, inside the cell brain (the nucleus), from the chemicals and reactions going on in the rest of the cell. Scientists believe the ‘nuclear envelope’ plays a key role in the cell, which means changes to the area can cause a range of diseases.
More than 104,000 classifications were submitted by thousands of volunteers and will now be used to better understand the biology of cells and train computers to analyse data even faster.