Thermo Fisher Scientific has made hardware and software enhancements to its Arrayscan VTI HCS Reader that are aimed at improving live-cell imaging and expanding visualisation.
The enhancements are also designed to expand open standards data management and are part of the Thermo Scientific High-Content 2.0 programme.
They include the integration of the Zeiss Definite Focus hardware into the Arrayscan VTI HCS Reader's live-cell configuration.
This change is designed to better support high-content analysis of living cells, such as the study of calcium signalling, pharmacokinetics, toxicity and GPCRs.
During such long-term experiments the sample container often deforms due to thermal changes, however, the Definite Focus hardware maintains the sample in sharp focus (for up to 20h) by the use of a long wavelength (infrared region) LED in combination with algorithms that adjust the instrument's Z-drive, eliminating the need for repeated software autofocus and the photo-toxicity it may cause.
Definite Focus is integrated into the Arrayscan VTI HCS Reader and is available together with Thermo Fisher's existing Arrayscan VTI live-cell module and liquid-handling module.
The hardware configuration, coupled with the existing range of kinetic measurement tools, is said to offer researchers flexibility and ability to investigate myriad cellular processes in live cells.
Thermo Scientific Iview image-mining software adds new visualisation functionality to all the Thermo Scientific high-content platforms.
The Iview software offers image-centric analytics that allow easy visual quality control of experiments at the plate, well and cell level, while maintaining links to the quantitative data.
Users can investigate cell phenotypes using 'flow cytometry-like' scatter plots that allow visual correlation of cell phenotypes with the data.
To complement the Definite Focus-enabled live-cell configurations, Iview software can quickly create movies of live-cell kinetic experiments.
Thermo Scientific Opengateway software is said to bring the benefits of the company's high-content informatics, image analysis tools and data-mining software to all researchers who generate images and data, whether from high-content platforms or microscopes.
Developed using OME and web services standards, Opengateway offers a rich XML standard format for data and images, together with a web service interface to allow them to be easily imported into the Thermo Scientific Store database.
Once images and data are safely in the database they can be managed, accessed and analysed.
Users can then benefit from a single, open-standard repository of images and data, regardless of source.
