Löwenstein, KatjaRehrl, JohannaSchuster, AnjaGadermayr, MichaelGarrison, LauraJönsson, Daniel2024-09-172024-09-172024978-3-03868-244-82070-5786https://doi.org/10.2312/vcbm.20241186https://diglib.eg.org/handle/10.2312/vcbm20241186The in vitro scratch assay is a widely used assay in cell biology to assess the rate of wound closure related to a variety of therapeutic interventions. While manual measurement is subjective and vulnerable to intra- and interobserver variability, computer-based tools are theoretically objective, but in practice often contain parameters which are manually adjusted (individually per image or data set) and thereby provide a source for subjectivity. Modern deep learning approaches typically require large annotated training data which complicates instant applicability. In this paper, we make use of the segment anything model, a deep foundation model based on interactive point-prompts, which enables class-agnostic segmentation without tuning the network's parameters based on domain specific training data. The proposed method clearly outperformed a semi-objective baseline method that required manual inspection and, if necessary, adjustment of parameters per image. Even though the point prompts of the proposed approach are theoretically also a source for subjectivity, results attested very low intra- and interobserver variability, even compared to manual segmentation of domain experts.Attribution 4.0 International LicenseCCS Concepts: Computing methodologies → Image segmentation; Applied computing → ImagingComputing methodologies → Image segmentationApplied computing → Imaging10.2312/vcbm.202411865 pages