Amersham Biosciences has introduced a new software package designed for the analysis of images from a wide range of biological samples and targeted at multi-user molecular biologists, neuroscientists and cell biology research laboratory technicians.
The program, called ImageQuant TL, can be used to analyse a broad range of assays, including those based on 1D gels, simple 2D gels, dot blot, slot blot, microplate, thin-layer chromatography (TLC), macroarray and plaque assays. It can also be used to take the strain out of labour-intensive tasks such as colony counting.
It can be used either as a standalone package or with Amersham's in-house imagers, such as the Typhoon scanner, where images generated from different sample types are automatically analysed by the software. ImageQuant TL updates the standard ImageQuant package which has been in use in life sciences labs around the world since 1988.
With ImageQuant TL, data results from single or multi-channel images is dynamically presented in a measurements table that is easily and automatically updated when adjustments to the analyses are made, noted Amersham.
Andy Bertera, vice president, genomics product management at Amersham Biosciences, said: "The versatility and the degree of automation of ImageQuant TL to eliminate user-to-user variation will speed up the analysis process and improve reproducibility."
ImageQuant TL helps meet the demanding needs of users of variable mode imagers and camera systems and has been designed to handle multicolour images from diverse applications with modern algorithms, with a high degree of automation, while also allowing the user to define specific tools for data analysis.
Amersham developed the software package alongside Nonlinear Dynamics.