Mayachitra Imago from Mayachitra

There are very few pieces of software in the biological sciences field that allow for the storage of biological imaging data in a intuitive, highly searchable, and easy to use database. Enter Imago, a soon-to-be software release by Mayachitra. The primary function of Imago is the archiving of acquired digital images into a searchable database format (think iPhoto for the scientific imaging field).

In its capacity as an image database, images are imported into folders within the Imago directory leaving the original image file in its native, unedited format. Most image capture programs embed image acquisition information within each file, all of which can be read and interpreted by Imago. Once imported into Imago, image files can be identified in a myriad of ways including, but not limited to, experimental details, date, channel identification etc. All these identifiers can subsequently be used as search and sorting parameters within the database. A particularly useful feature is the ability to identify individual images that have been published in research papers and label them with appropriate identifiers such as journal name and publication date. In addition to being able to annotate image files with searchable labels, image files can be annotated with user-defined graphical and text information. Similar to Photoshop, these annotations are created as layers that can be clicked on and off and thus preserve the original image file. Highly useful built-in annotations include Imago’s scale bar function, which utilizes embedded image information to add a scale bar layer to an image file.

Although already impressive in its scope as a scientific image database, the capability of Imago does not end there. Imago possesses several other features that make this a very useful piece of software for scientists who perform image data analysis. For example, Imago gives its users the ability to perform nuclear counts. This feature may seem trivial given the nuclear counting abilities of imaging software such as MetaMorph or ImageJ. However, Imago provides a highly intuitive counting interface that allows a) separate nuclear counting within individual channels of an RGB image and b) counting of nuclei of different spacing and size within the same image based on user-defined selection parameters. The nuclear count function of Imago involves drawing a circle around an average nucleus, which the software then utilizes to plot the data as red dots over the image field. Subsequently, a user-adjusted sliding threshold algorithm is used to remove falsely identified nuclei, which can be refined even further by the manual addition or subtraction of individual points. Although not tested, Imago also performs image registration, which can combine multiple images into a single, seamless stitched image.

As an independent, non-affiliated beta tester of Mayachitra Imago I have been very impressed with the capability of the software. In our work on polycystic kidney disease, we have found the nuclear counting feature to be very useful for performing total nuclear counts, cystic nuclear counts and proliferating cell counts on RGB images. Imago was originally offered as a free beta-build trial version and should now be available for purchase (beginning in early February 2010).