IHC and staining annotation for pathology AI

Label positive and negative regions, cellular structures, and expert-defined staining categories in immunohistochemistry images. Build reviewed data for your downstream pathology analysis.
IHC & Staining Annotation example with source-data annotations and contextual photographs.

Build training examples from staining evidence

Capture the cellular regions and visual staining categories defined by your IHC annotation protocol.
Pathology cells and matching regions prepared for biomarker pattern analysis.

Positive and negative staining

Mark positive and negative examples using the staining criteria established by your team.
IHC region with positive staining and expert-defined intensity properties.

Staining pattern classes

Assign task-defined classes or properties to the cellular and tissue patterns visible in the source slide.
Pathology cells and nuclei with structure-aligned instance segmentation masks.

Cellular regions of interest

Outline the cells or nuclei required by your downstream biomarker analysis task.
IHC cellular regions labeled for membrane staining.

Nuclear and membrane staining

Label the task-defined staining location and region according to the marker-specific annotation protocol.

Why AI Teams Choose Unitlab

Bring pathology annotation, shared ontologies, expert review, and dataset delivery into one workflow so your team can focus on useful training data.
15X
Faster Pathology Annotation
60%
Free Up AI Engineers’ Time
5X
Lower AI Development Costs

Annotation types for IHC and staining

Match each cellular or tissue task to precise outlines, masks, points, and structured annotation properties.
Pathology cells and matching regions prepared for biomarker pattern analysis.

Cell and region labels

Mark the cellular or tissue regions that provide the evidence for your biomarker analysis task.

Staining properties

Capture task-defined staining categories as structured properties attached to the relevant annotation.

IHC region with positive staining and expert-defined intensity properties.

IHC & Staining Annotation FAQs

What is IHC staining annotation?

It labels cellular or tissue regions and their staining categories in immunohistochemistry images, creating training data based on the interpretation protocol defined by your specialists.

Can I label positive and negative examples?

Yes. Define positive, negative, or other task-specific classes with explicit visual criteria, then apply them consistently to the source images.

Can I record staining intensity categories?

Yes. Use structured properties for the categories your annotation protocol defines. These are expert labels rather than automatic intensity measurements.

Can annotations support downstream quantification?

Yes. Reviewed regions and cellular labels can provide input to your own counting, measurement, or scoring pipeline.

How does annotation differ from staining measurement?

Annotation records expert-defined regions and categories. Your downstream analysis pipeline can use those labels with its own validated measurement or scoring methods.

How can reviewers reduce inconsistent staining labels?

Use reference examples, define category boundaries, and review uncertain cells or regions against the same staining criteria before release.

Which whole-slide image formats can I annotate?

Supported inputs include SVS, AVS, NDPI, SCN, BIF, SVSLIDE, tiled TIFF, and single-file OME-BigTIFF slides. Tiled navigation lets teams inspect large slides at different zoom levels.

How can pathology experts review the labels?

Reviewers inspect cellular or tissue boundaries in slide context, discuss uncertain regions, and return corrections through the configured workflow. Shared classes keep the annotation protocol consistent.

Are slide coordinates preserved in exported annotations?

Yes. Pathology labels retain the original full-resolution raster coordinate space. Supported formats include COCO, YOLO, and Unitlab Unified Export Format, depending on the annotation data you need.