  An unresolved issue in contemporary biomedicine is the overwhelming number
and diversity of complex images that require annotation, analysis and
interpretation. Recent advances in Deep Learning have revolutionized the field
of computer vision, creating algorithms that compete with human experts in
image segmentation tasks. Crucially however, these frameworks require large
human-annotated datasets for training and the resulting models are difficult to
interpret. In this study, we introduce Kartezio, a modular Cartesian Genetic
Programming based computational strategy that generates transparent and easily
interpretable image processing pipelines by iteratively assembling and
parameterizing computer vision functions. The pipelines thus generated exhibit
comparable precision to state-of-the-art Deep Learning approaches on instance
segmentation tasks, while requiring drastically smaller training datasets, a
feature which confers tremendous flexibility, speed, and functionality to this
approach. We also deployed Kartezio to solve semantic and instance segmentation
problems in four real-world Use Cases, and showcase its utility in imaging
contexts ranging from high-resolution microscopy to clinical pathology. By
successfully implementing Kartezio on a portfolio of images ranging from
subcellular structures to tumoral tissue, we demonstrated the flexibility,
robustness and practical utility of this fully explicable evolutionary designer
for semantic and instance segmentation.
