Dr Pascal Vallotton

Dr Pascal Vallotton: quantifying information in biological images

Dr Vallotton leads the Biotech Imaging group at CSIRO and his interests lie in extracting quantitative information from digital images of biological origin.

• 26 May 2009 | Updated 14 October 2011

Overview

• Current activities
• Background 
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements 

Current activities

Dr Vallotton and his team are developing software for:

• quantifying neurite outgrowth
• for measuring the sub-cellular localisation and translocation of protein
• for quantifying and analysing cell morphology and dynamics.

'Our aim is to speed up and automate discovery in the biological sciences using computer vision and statistical methods,' says Dr Vallotton.

The Biotech Imaging group has recently developed a package called HCA-Vision for analysing the complex shapes of nerves cells.

Background

Dr Vallotton's obtained his doctorate for a study of the 5HT₃ membrane protein receptor using analytical time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy.

Dr Vallotton is the author of Diatrack, a popular object tracking software. He is also the author of several publications that have established Fluorescence Speckle Microscopy as a quantitative technique.

Dr Vallotton sees a well balanced team as the main factor for success.

Academic qualifications

Dr Vallotton recieved his Master of Science in Physics from the Swiss Polytechnic School of Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1997. He was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Biophysics in 2000 from the same institution.

Achievements

Dr Vallotton has been awarded the:

• Fellowship for Young Prospective Research Scientists
• Prix Lausanne Region Entreprendre 2004, award for entrepreneur.

Read about CSIRO’s High Content Analysis software, HCA-Vision.