Hello everyone !
We’re starting to think about having an image analysis service here at the IBENS bioinformatics platform (that currently provides genomic data analysis and scientific illustration services).
I have a core question about it, that I think you all could be of great help:
Do you (or your platform) provide an analysis service or an software/workflow that can analyse the data ?
For example: There’s a dataset of images that need cell counting. As far as I can see, there are two approaches:
- Develop my workflow and process the data, and give to the client only the results (like a table of counted cells per image).
- Create a “friendly” macro/interface that the client can use, and process the data himself (like a Fiji macro or a python notebook that they can load the images and get the cell count by the end).
Option 1 seems easier/faster, as we don’t need to worry about how the client (usually, biologists) could run the algorithm. But I foresee that they are not likely to have all the data ready during the beginning of the project, and to acquire huge amounts of data first, and then later see if it can be processed looks like a recipe for problems. The problem with option 2 is that it would possibly create and endless series of extra requests, like “We changed the resolution of the acquisition, and now the macro doesn’t work properly” or “We’re using a different marker for the cells, and now it doesn’t work” etc etc…
So, what’s the approach of your platform when providing image analysis services ?
Thanks in advance !
– Felipe Delestro