As part of a summer placement project, supported by the CCIMI, some of our investigators and affiliated members have worked with placement student Margaret Duff on a project with ioLight, which was recently reported on their website.  The project worked to develop algorithms which take images from an ioLight field microscope and spot intestinal parasites. In the long term this work will contribute to reducing drug overuse and increasing farm profitability.

Margaret produced proof-of-concept image analysis software using MATLAB to analyse the microscope images automatically and count parasite eggs, and showed that using a combination of algorithms and machine learning, she was able to detect eggs correctly with approximately 85% success rate. This shows great potential to help vets and farmers increase productivity and win the fight against drug-resistant parasites.

Margaret’s work was a collaboration between The Cantab Capital Institute for the Mathematics of Information and The Centre for Mathematical Imaging in Healthcare,  Mathworks LTD and Cancer Research UK, and the project was hosted by ioLight.  Carola-Bibiane Schonlieb and Joana Grah from the CCIMI worked alongside Margaret offering support and supervision, along with Jasmina Lazic (Bayes Centre, University of Edinburgh), Sylvain Sauvage (Mathworks) and Stefanie Reichelt (Cancer Research UK).

More information on the project can be read on the recent article produced by ioLight, www.iolight.co.uk/iolight-pocket-microscope-fights-drug-resistance-farm-animals/