Tag Archives: dictyostelium

Second Dicty Amateur Video Analysis (17-May)

** Updated 18-May **

Some videos have been added today (refresh https://scicast.org/dicty), so I took a second look.  I don’t look through microscopes for a living, so this isn’t final.  Times below are the timestamped clock time, which elapses at about 8m per frame. I collected:

  • TeamNum: Team name number stated in the video title
  • TeamName: Team name and/or PI name(s)
  • t_First: time when the first cell entered the finish zone. There is some ambiguity for cells that hang out on the opening.
  • Num_3hr: #cells in the finish zone by the 3hr mark; not sure how Irimia is counting cells that leave after entering
  • Num_5hr: #cells in the finish zone by the 5hr mark (only 4 videos)
  • Notes: salient notes, in quotes

Often there were two mazes and finish lines visible.  In these cases I tried to count both finish lines.  I’m not sure that’s canonical.  Here are the results as I saw them (Changed format to avoid margin clipping; sorted by Num_3hr):

TeamNum,TeamName,t_First,Num_3hr,Num_5hr,Notes
Team 12,Kortholt,1:36,14,,”3 in at 1:36,4 @ 1:40,at least 14 at 3h”
Team 11,Faix,1:28,12,,3 in @ 1:36; I counted at least 12 entering by 3h
Control HL60,,1:42,9,,9+. I can’t get it to hold the last frame to count.
Team 9 HL60,Insall,2:14,5,,5+. Many cells got bored and went back into the maze.
Team 17,Kimmel,1:36,5,,5+. Can’t hold the last frame.
Caffeine Control,,1:56,4,,Last one just in time.
Race2Control,,2:15,2,5,”Lots of cells,lots of movement,esp. outside the maze.”
Racer X Neutrophils,,2:25,2,,Cell entering 2:25 jumps track next frame 2:30. Entered?
Team1,Strassman & Queller,2:38,1.5,3,Video starts at 1:30; 2nd cell just crossing at 3:00
Team 9,Insall,,0,0,”Video starts at 1:30; hard to see,but cells appear disorganized.”
Team18,Kay,4:07,0,1,Cells outside the maze are much faster!
Team5 HL60,Steinckwich-Besancon,,0,,”Only 5-6 cells visible,hardly moving.”
Team 19 HL60,Tschirhart,,0,,17 cells idly drifting around the mazes.
Team 7,Bruce,,0,,Halfway through the maze at 3h.
Team 10,Beta,,0,,No cells visible on the slide.
Team 20,Devreotes,,0,,Only 1 confused cell. Did preliminary videos have the wrong label?
Team 9,Insall,,0,,About halfway through at 3h.
Team 15,Myre,,0,,About halfway through at 3h.
Team14,Muller-Taubenberger,,,,Irimia says cells did not get to the starting line.

So, likely winners:

  • Overall winner (most finishers at 3h): Team 12 (Kortholt) with 14+ cells.  We had an email from Irimia mid-afternoon saying at that point they also thought 12 was the most likely.  Second place is probably Team 11 (Faix) with 12+ cells in. Third is likely to be either the HL60 line from Team 9 (Insall), or Team 17 (Kimmel), both with at least 5 cells in by 3hr.
  • Fastest: Team 11 (Faix) just edges out Teams 12 (Kortholt) and 17 (Kimmel) for the fastest single cell at 1:28. This may turn on the precise definition of finish line.
  • Smartest: Sorry, I don’t have the patience to count wrong turns.

Notes: Neutrophils need to be photographed more often — the fastest ones are simply sprinting too fast to uniquely infer motion between frames.

You can still edit the Fastest and Smartest questions.  Until Irimia announces the winners anyway.   https://scicast.org/dicty.

0

Dicty World Race Course 2014

The 2014 Dicty Race Course (shown below with no cells in it) was collaboratively designed by a team at Daniel Irimia’s lab. Some clever lad even thought it would be funny to put a Pacman in there. Good call!

2014 Dicty Race Course

At the end of the race course is a straightaway that is 200 microns in length. This straightaway is used to measure speed. Since the microscope only takes an image every 5 minutes, the straightaway allows for Daniel’s lab to tell exactly how many microns the cell moved during the 5 min between that photo and the previous one. Speed is not measured while a cell is in the course because the cell might have taken a number of turns since the last image was taken. 

First shot of Dicty cell lines on the move

To start the race, the cells are dropped into the middle of the maze (circle in upper left) and they begin to migrate outward into the maze on the right. Can you tell what the shortest path is?!

Tweet @scicasters and let us know what you think!

0

Prepped and Loaded - Cells Loaded into the Maze

The cells have been loaded into the maze. The final preparations for the official start are wrapping up… We’re getting so close to seeing what these cells can really do!

Loading HL60 cell lines into maze

Loading HL60 cell lines into maze

HL60 cells under the microscope

The microscope is motorized so it cycles through the spots on the slide every 5 minutes and takes a picture. The pictures are strung together to make the final “movie” of the race

0

Investigative Report: Foul Play at Luxembourg?

As we all know from an earlier blog post, the Tschirhart Lab from the University of Luxembourg’s cells were DOA. We can’t help but wonder why this might have been the case. Could there have been some foul play from our other competitors? Potsdam perhaps? Stay tuned to see if we can find out! 

Be sure to follow our live coverage on our Dicty World Race page: https://scicast.org/dicty for the race and follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/scicasters

0

Dicty World Race(s) 2014?!

Currently we are getting word that there will be two different start times for the Dicty World Race, or race(s), in our case. The HL60s will be starting shortly, while the Dictys will start a short time after that.

Any thoughts on the reason for the change? How do you think this will change the race outcome? Let us know at our Dicty World Race page: https://scicast.org/dicty and for more updates follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scicasters

0