Stain-free histopathology by chemical imaging

Abstract

The present disclosure provides methods, systems, and computer-readable storage media that can be used to image an unstained sample. Traditionally histopathology and immunohistochemistry methods use stains or dyes in combination with microscopy (or other detection methods) to detect cells and cellular structures, such as proteins. However, the disclosed methods do not require the use of such stains and dyes. The disclosed methods can include obtaining a spectroscopic image (e.g., infrared (IR) imaging data) of the sample, analyzing the resulting spectroscopic image to reduce the dimensionality of the spectroscopic image, comparing the reduced spectroscopic image compared to a control (e.g., by using an appropriately trained algorithm) and generating an output computed stain image from the reduced IR spectra, thereby imaging the sample without the use of stains or dyes.