DeepCell 2.0: Automated cloud deployment of deep learning models for large-scale cellular image analysis

Deep learning is transforming the ability of life scientists to extract information from images. While these techniques have superior accuracy in comparison to conventional approaches and enable previously impossible analyses, their unique hardware and software requirements have prevented widespread adoption by life scientists. To meet this need, we have developed DeepCell 2.0, an open source library for training and delivering deep learning models with cloud computing. This library enables users to configure and manage a cloud deployment of DeepCell 2.0 on all commonly used operating systems. Using single-cell segmentation as a use case, we show that users with suitable training data can train models and analyze data with those models through a web interface. We demonstrate that by matching analysis tasks with their hardware requirements, we can efficiently use computational resources in the cloud and scale those resources to meet demand, significantly reducing the time necessary for large-scale image analysis. By reducing the barriers to entry, this work will empower life scientists to apply deep learning methods to their data. A persistent deployment is available at http://www.deepcell.org.