by Catherine Shaffer
Image analysis is an area of laboratory research that in the past has been cumbersome and frustrating. New advances in technology, however, are providing exciting alternatives to former methods. Specialized software—that will run on a desktop PC or a network—allows you to analyze images from any application you can imagine, saving your eyesight and your time for other purposes.
Image Analysis for Gels and Blots
Making software user friendly and eliminating the learning curve are key areas of emphasis at Alpha Innotech. The fifteen-year-old company specializes in tools for bioimaging (including imaging and analyzing gels or blots), offering high performance cameras, cabinets, and image analysis software. The abilities to rapidly compare the intensity of bands, or to obtain an accurate quantity (based on a standard curve), make digital image analysis systems a must-have in the laboratory.
Alpha Innotech's newest software package is called AlphaView. Says Lisa Valdin, marketing manager for Alpha Innotech Corp: “In the past we have had very easy-to-use software, but now we want to emphasize more the applications ... rather than asking the user to decide what type of analysis they want to do, we instead ask what type of application they are performing. Automatically it will default to selected modules that go hand-in-hand with that application. We're trying to understand what the user is trying to do rather than having them figure it out for themselves.”
Applications naturally include gel and blot analysis, using both fluorescent and chemiluminescent dyes. Alpha Innotech imaging systems can also be used for whole animal imaging; an animal labeled with a tracer chemical can be studied all at once. Live animals can also be used, so that changes over time can be noted, and the software is designed to keep track of these changes.
Image Analysis in Microscopy
Digital image analysis has become increasingly important with the use of microscopy, and the technology opens new worlds for understanding the images created under a microscope. Perkin Elmer, Inc. offers two families of products that emphasize different microscopic applications. The first is Volocity, created and developed by Improvision, a division of Perkin Elmer. Volocity is a set of four products designed for three- and four-dimensional image acquisition, volume visualization, object tracking, charting, image restoration, and publication.
Volocity Acquisition controls the functions of the acquisition hardware, including camera, filter changer, and microscope, providing a video preview in real time. The
images are acquired directly into a Volocity library for viewing and analysis. The visualization module allows the user to render the acquired images into a high resolution, three-dimensional image of the volume. “For many scientists, this is the first time they've seen their samples like that...it's a highly effective way of working out the location of one structure to another, such as watching embryo development, locating parasites or bacteria within structures,” says Nicky Francis, product manager for image analysis software for Improvision/Perkin Elmer, listing a few examples of the many applications possible with Volocity visualization. It can also be used to create images for publications, slide shows, Quicktime movies, and other presentations. The Volocity Quantitation product takes images to the next level, providing accurate measurements from the images. Lastly, Volocity Restoration provides the tools to remove out-of-focus information from wide field fluorescent and confocal microscope images.
Perkin Elmer's other image analysis software product line, Acapella, is designed for use with high throughput microscopes that read samples from microtiter plates. It works with a distributed microprocessing system comprised of several PCs with multi-core processors in parallel, to maximize processing speed. The system analyzes images at a rate of about one per second, or a 96-well plate in less than two minutes, and a 1536-well plate in less than half an hour. A collection of algorithms is available for users to choose from to analyze images, and new algorithms can be designed upon request. The software does the work of the human eye in identifying changes in the images. In high throughput screening, the speed of processing is absolutely crucial. “You only have a second, or a few seconds for every analysis. This is what the image analysis from Acapella is capable of: analyzing complex images within seconds,” says Gabriele Gradl, global product manager for high content screening with Perkin Elmer.
Universal Imaging Options
Approaching image analysis software from its particular point-of-view—as a maker of research grade cameras for microscopes—allowed ImagingPlanet to create open platform software tools, for analyzing images from all applications. Software from California-based ImagingPlanet comes in two surfing-themed packages. Rincon (named for a corner or point where a wave breaks over a reef) is the basic application, and is a cost-effective, manually controlled image analysis program that can be used to take measurements from live and captured images and perform 3D visualization, image stitching, etc. Longboard, the premium product, does everything that Rincon does, as well as automatic thresholding, data collection, and other advanced functions. Says Mike Drabik, eastern regional sales manager for Imaging Planet and Optronics: “Both of these products are designed to give end-users a very simple, easy-to-use software interface, to perform analysis on captured and live images in the biomedical, medical, surgical, and industrial applications.”
Another universal imaging analysis solution is also the oldest on the market. Metamorph, from MDS Analytical Technologies, is a complete automation and analysis solution package. The product supports a very wide range of hardware devices and camera acquisition systems. The company does manufacture its own hardware for a completely integrated system, but hundreds of drivers are available for different cameras and other hardware devices. Users have applied Metamorph to research as divergent as cell counting, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and tissue imaging. The company is currently preparing to launch an upgraded product with 64-bit capability, which allows users to have more data in active memory and acquire larger data sets. Future advances will focus on making the products more approachable and easier to use.
