Imaging is a critical technique in biology—from identifying cancerous cells in biopsies to observing how immune cells like macrophages hunt down and destroy pathogens. Traditionally, distinguishing and labeling individual cells in images and videos has been an arduous task done by hand. Now, an interdisciplinary team of Caltech researchers has developed an artificial intelligence algorithm to identify cells in images for a wide variety of biological applications. The new tool, called CellSAM (Cell Segment Anything Model), is the result of a collaboration between the laboratories of David Van Valen (PhD '11), an assistant professor of biology and biological engineering, Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Freeman Hrabowski Scholar; and Yisong Yue , professor of computing and mathematical sciences. A paper describing the research appears in the journal Nature Methods .…