Automated Data Extraction and Analysis for Arrayed Primer Extension Images

Abstract

The Arrayed Primer Extension (APEX) method is used to detect Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP), deletion and insertion based diseases. The main method consists of washing different flourophores over oligonukleotites and then analysing which flourophore attached to identify the oligonukleotites. A crucial step in the APEX method is analysing the captured light from the flourophores when a laser excites them. The current method of analysing this data requires extensive manual review. This thesis describes a method of automating the data grid detection in the captured images which is currently a manual task. The second part describes the application of predictive methods for the data analysis of the four captured images and comparisons to the already existing clustering method.