Dr Jimmy Moore

Congratulations to Jimmy on gaining his PhD in Computational Approaches for the Interpretation of ToF-SIMS Data!

Well done!

Abstract

High surface sensitivity and lateral resolution imaging make Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) a unique and powerful tool for biological analysis. Many of these biological systems, including drug-cell interactions, require both the identi cation and location of speci c chemicals. ToF-SIMS, used in imaging mode, is making great strides towards the goal of single cell and tissue analysis. The experiments, however, result in huge volumes of data. Here advanced computational approaches employing sophisticated techniques to convert this data into knowledge are introduced.

This thesis aims to produce a framework for data analysis, integrating novel algorithms, image analysis and 3D visualisation. New schema outlined in this thesis address the issues of the immense size of 3D image stacks and the complexity contained within the enormous wealth of information in ToF-SIMS data.

To deal with the issues of size and complexity of ToF-SIMS data, new techniques to processing image data are investigated. Automated compression routines for ToFSIMS images using a peak picking routine tailored for ToF-SIMS are evaluated. New user friendly GUIs capable of processing and visualising very large image stacks are introduced as part of a tool-kit designed to streamline the process of multivariate analysis and image processing. Along with this two well known classi cation routines, namely AdaBoost and SVMs, are also applied to ToF-SIMS data of several bacterial strains to test their ability to classify SIMS data accurately. This thesis present several new approaches to data processing and interpretation of ToF-SIMS data.