Estimation of Errors in Gene Expression Data Introduced by Diffractive Blurring of Confocal Images

The confocal scanning microscopy is the most common method for acquisition of gene expression data at a resolution of a single cell. Confocal images are of very high quality that makes it possible to extract high-precision quantitative information from them. However the accuracy of the data is limited due to possible experimental errors. In this study we propose an algorithm for estimation and correction of errors in the data caused by diffractive scattering of confocal images. The method is based on the Richardson-Lucy (RL) deconvolution algorithm. The RL algorithm is modified to provide the higher accuracy of data read off from blurred images of objects with sharp edges. We have used the dataset on segmentation gene expression in Drosophila embryo as a test case.