Using MATLAB to quantify extracellular matrix fiber alignment by migrating cells

Christine Gatto (JMU, Engineering, '19) worked with images of ECM from Dr. Kristopher Kubow (JMU, Biology) that were organized by cells over time. The biology question centers around the complex feedback between ECM fibers and cells. Cells align ECM fibers, but which "signal" is the strongest for the cells? The previous alignment of the ECM or the cellular rearrangement of the ECM. Christine's project involved quantifying the ECM fibers. Before we could create an AI algorithm to identify the fibers, we needed to understand what we were trying to quantify, how the computer might quantify it, and how to then use the data to make sense of the results. Christine used MATLAB to identify fibers manually, and then worked with how to process the data of a series of points to determine a degree of alignment.