Center for AIDS Research Infectivity Analysis Software

The Romanizer (5MGL.exe) is a software program developed in the labs of Dr. Douglas Richman and Dr. John Guatelli to automatically count HIV-infected foci.  The infectious-center assay required to use the program relies upon a HeLa-based cell line that contains an LTR-b-galactosidase gene (P4-CCR5 cells).  HIV-infected cells will express b-galactosidase and can be stained blue with X-gal.  We use a 5 megapixel CCD video camera with a macro video zoom lens and QCapture Pro software (QImaging) to image the cells. The software we developed automatically processes the images and counts blue-stained cells.  The Romanizer requires a Windows-based operating system and analyzes only high resolution (5 megapixel) images.

 

For a complete description of the system: 

Day, J.R., Martinez, L.E., Sasik, R., Hitchin, D., Dueck, M., Richman, D.D. and Guatelli, J.C.  A computer-based, image-analysis method to quantify HIV-1 infection in a single-cycle infectious center assay. 2006. Journal of Virological Methods, 137:125-133. Abstract

The software, setup and operating instructions can be downloaded using this ZIP file:

•  Romanizer.zip (915 KB)

  • 5MGL.exe, the software program

  • 5MGL.PAR, a parameter file

  • CameraSetup.doc, instructions and pictures of the setup

  • ImageAcquisitionProtocol.doc, instructions for capturing and analyzing the images

Sample images can be downloaded here: SampleImages.zip (16 MB)

 

Screen shot of the Romanizer: