Then a leap

All good things

From 1995 to 2001 I conducted my own experiments and supported the other researchers at DuPont Pharmaceuticals. In 2001 Bristol Myers Squibb purchased the company and in the span of one year closed down the research site I worked at.

My wife and I relocated to the Boston area where she was offered a nice research position. I relocated and was rehired by Bristol-Myers Squibb at the Medical Imaging site in Billerica, MA.

There I was able to reacquire a majority of the equipment I used at the DuPont site. I then set up a histology lab and a shadow of my digital darkroom.

Over the next 4 years I researched vulnerable plaque, PET perfusion imaging agent, and a variety of other imaging agents, mainly cardiovascular. I applied my knowledge and expanded into new technical areas like autoradiography, cellular kinetics, and special histology stains. All the histology efforts on the site were conducted by myself and my part time intern, Be Luu. Her attention to detail and concentration on the tasks at hand produced samples demonstrating morphology in cryosections better than what I have seen in paraffin sections produced by contract labs.

Again I conducted my own research and supported both discovery and development with my microscopy and imaging skills. Under my supervisor - Padmaja Yalamanchili I was given the opportunity to learn and grow not only in my imaging and histology skills but also in cell biology, tissue based assays, and radioligand based research.

The discovery biology group was small (< 20) and everyone needed to be able to conduct a wide variety of work. The Discovery Biology group put together and managed by Simon Robinson was a dedicated and talented group of people doing extraordinary work in both scientifically and productively with very limited resources. I was proud to be part of that team.

One more step

Imaging Support Grows with Opportunities

I feel I must continue to bring readers up to speed on my development of imaging skills. Mainly to encourage those who have an opportunity to see an unfilled niche and develop the resources to fill it. At this point in the mid 90's I was getting my M.B.A. and everything could be summed up in two words "create value."

My development of the Digital Darkroom capabilities expanded with brining in a flatbed scanner to digitize pictures previously made and the acquisition of additional imaging software, Adobe Photoshop Version 4 and Image Pro Plus from Media Cybernetics. The integration of image acquisition, processing, analysis, and output provided a complete package to aid myself and other scientists to conduct research.

As part of the general pharmacology group led by Andrew Slee and my immediate supervisor Janet Kerr I provided services to the different therapeutic groups of Dupont Merck. Two groups I concentrated on helping were oncology and cardiovascular disease. But over time I worked expanded to helping those working on inflammation, CNS, and anti-microbial therapies.




Creating Calibration Standards using Photoshop CS3 Extended

Creating calibrations to match the number of pixels with a know distance is easy with Photoshop CS3 Extended. A image that is parallel to the image sensor plane with a known distance is best to use. Most of my work concerns scanned materials or images from a microscope.

Open the image with the known distance

Pull down the Analysis Menu and select Set measurement scale > custom
This opens the measurement scale dialog window.

Move your cursor to the image. Photoshop has kindly and automatically given you the ruler tool.

Place one end on a edge of your known distance then move the other edge of the ruler tool to the other end of the known distance. Make sure that the point is located in the same way. If your first point is on the left side of a black line then the ending point should also be on the left side. To constrain the tool to 45 degree increments hold down the shift key.

With the ruler distance matching the known distance Photoshop reports the number of pixels in the length.

Fill in the actual known distance in the logical length field. If you know that the length you drew was 4 centimeters fill in the number 4.

Logical units is to set the name of the units of measurement. In this field enter in centimeter or an abbreviation like cm.

Finally save the calibration file you just made by clicking on the save preset button and giving a name to your calibration.

This calibration in now accessible under the set measurement scale call out to be applied on any other image you open in Photoshop.


Click image for better view.