IMMUNEMAP: an open atlas of immune cell motility
This project, co-directed by the group together with Prof. Gonzalez (IRB Bellinzona) and Prof. Krause (KAUST), aims at disseminating Open Research Data practices in bioimaging, providing an open platform to share and promote the reusage of intravital microscopy videos capturing immune system dynamics. This is essential to bridge the gap between researchers in immunology and computer vision, enabling exchange of data, analysis algorithms and reciprocal needs.
Supported by SNSF and swissuniversities, and thanks to an international network of 20 laboratories (including TKI), we are providing 1M+ single cell annotations, 50k+ cell trajectories and 400+ intravital microscopy videos acquired in different anatomical regions and experimental conditions.
Leveraging immunemap and unsupervised machine learning algorithms, we uncovered specific motility patterns displayed by immune cells in different experimental conditions. Moreover, the massive amount of data enabled the organization of the Cell Behavior Video Classification Challenge (CBVCC) that attracted computer vision researchers across the world to improve bioimage analysis methods.