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PhaseStain: Digital staining of label-free quantitative phase microscopy images using deep learning

arXiv 1807.07701 ↗First posted 20 Jul 2018eess.IV cs.CV physics.med-phcited by 41

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Abstract (arXiv)

Using a deep neural network, we demonstrate a digital staining technique, which we term PhaseStain, to transform quantitative phase images (QPI) of labelfree tissue sections into images that are equivalent to brightfield microscopy images of the same samples that are histochemically stained. Through pairs of image data (QPI and the corresponding brightfield images, acquired after staining) we train a generative adversarial network (GAN) and demonstrate the effectiveness of this virtual staining approach using sections of human skin, kidney and liver tissue, matching the brightfield microscopy images of the same samples stained with Hematoxylin and Eosin, Jones' stain, and Masson's trichrome stain, respectively. This digital staining framework might further strengthen various uses of labelfree QPI techniques in pathology applications and biomedical research in general, by eliminating the need for chemical staining, reducing sample preparation related costs and saving time. Our results provide a powerful example of some of the unique opportunities created by data driven image transformations enabled by deep learning.

Key facts. Cited by 41 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). First posted on arXiv 20 Jul 2018.

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Citing papers per year: 2021: 3; 2022: 9; 2023: 10; 2024: 12; 2025: 5; 2026: 2.

41 papers.

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  1. 2022Deep Learning-enabled Virtual Histological Staining of Biological Samplescited by 42
  2. 2021Label-free virtual HER2 immunohistochemical staining of breast tissue using deep learningcited by 22
  3. 2023On the use of deep learning for phase recoverycited by 20
  4. 2023Uncertainty Quantification via Neural Posterior Principal Componentscited by 16
  5. 2022Self-supervised learning of hologram reconstruction using physics consistencycited by 14
  6. 2022Virtual stain transfer in histology via cascaded deep neural networkscited by 13
  7. 2022Virtual staining of defocused autofluorescence images of unlabeled tissue using deep neural networkscited by 11
  8. 2023Virtual histological staining of unlabeled autopsy tissuecited by 11
  9. 2024StainDiffuser: MultiTask Dual Diffusion Model for Virtual Stainingcited by 11
  10. 2023Multispectral Quantitative Phase Imaging Using a Diffractive Optical Networkcited by 10
  11. 2023Structural Cycle GAN for Virtual Immunohistochemistry Staining of Gland Markers in the Coloncited by 10
  12. 2024VIMs: Virtual Immunohistochemistry Multiplex staining via Text-to-Stain Diffusion Trained on Uniplex Stainscited by 10
29 more
  1. 2024Virtual birefringence imaging and histological staining of amyloid deposits in label-free tissue using autofluorescence microscopy and deep learningcited by 8
  2. 2024Pixel super-resolved virtual staining of label-free tissue using diffusion modelscited by 8
  3. 2023Digital staining in optical microscopy using deep learning -- a reviewcited by 7
  4. 2022Diffractive Interconnects: All-Optical Permutation Operation Using Diffractive Networkscited by 6
  5. 2024A robust and scalable framework for hallucination detection in virtual tissue staining and digital pathologycited by 6
  6. 2022Deformation equivariant cross-modality image synthesis with paired non-aligned training datacited by 5
  7. 2021Physical model simulator-trained neural network for computational 3D phase imaging of multiple-scattering samplescited by 3
  8. 2021A generative adversarial approach to facilitate archival-quality histopathologic diagnoses from frozen tissue sectionscited by 3
  9. 2023Automated Whole Slide Imaging for Label-Free Histology using Photon Absorption Remote Sensing Microscopycited by 2
  10. 2024Multiplane Quantitative Phase Imaging Using a Wavelength-Multiplexed Diffractive Optical Processorcited by 2
  11. 2024Scalable, Trustworthy Generative Model for Virtual Multi-Staining from H&E Whole Slide Imagescited by 2
  12. 2022Differentiable Microscopy Designs an All Optical Phase Retrieval Microscopecited by 1
  13. 2022From Hours to Seconds: Towards 100x Faster Quantitative Phase Imaging via Differentiable Microscopycited by 1
  14. 2022HoechstGAN: Virtual Lymphocyte Staining Using Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 1
  15. 2023Unsupervised Deep Digital Staining For Microscopic Cell Images Via Knowledge Distillationcited by 1
  16. 2024Single color digital H&E staining with In-and-Out Netcited by 1
  17. 2024Single Exposure Quantitative Phase Imaging with a Conventional Microscope using Diffusion Modelscited by 1
  18. 2024Label-free evaluation of lung and heart transplant biopsies using tissue autofluorescence-based virtual stainingcited by 1
  19. 2024BlurryScope enables compact, cost-effective scanning microscopy for HER2 scoring using deep learning on blurry imagescited by 1
  20. 2025Deep learning-enabled virtual multiplexed immunostaining of label-free tissue for vascular invasion assessmentcited by 1
  21. 2023Learning with minimal effort: leveraging in silico labeling for cell and nucleus segmentationcited by 0
  22. 2023Label- and slide-free tissue histology using 3D epi-mode quantitative phase imaging and virtual H&E stainingcited by 0
  23. 2024Virtual Gram staining of label-free bacteria using darkfield microscopy and deep learningcited by 0
  24. 2025Evaluation of Machine-generated Biomedical Images via A Tally-based Similarity Measurecited by 0
  25. 2025From Fibers to Cells: Fourier-Based Registration Enables Virtual Cresyl Violet Staining From 3D Polarized Light Imagingcited by 0
  26. 2025Building Trust in Virtual Immunohistochemistry: Automated Assessment of Image Qualitycited by 0
  27. 2025Bright 4B: Scaling Hyperspherical Learning for Segmentation in 3D Brightfield Microscopycited by 0
  28. 2026Automated HER2 scoring with uncertainty quantification using lensfree holography and deep learningcited by 0
  29. 2026Towards Label-Free Single-Cell Phenotyping Using Multi-Task Learningcited by 0