An Extension of Fuzzy C-Means Applied to Spot Recognition in Images of Two-Dimensional Electrophoresis

Abstract

Proteomics is defined as the large-scale characterization of protein sets expressed in a cell or tissue. Lately, proteomics has been broadly using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis for its analysis. It consists of migration and separation of molecules, placed in a gel, according to the strength of an electric field. In order to see these proteins, it is necessary to use some kind of reagent of revelation, which ends up resulting in a two-dimensional profile of spots. Afterwards, this gel is scanned and produces an image, and then this image may be analyzed. Usually, there is noise in this kind of image. Thinking on it, this work presents a technique using Fuzzy Logics to find spots.