Olympus Nanozoomer and Olympus VS110 Virtual Microscopy System

[Romin, Yevgeniy/Sloan Kettering Institute]

Hello All

 

First, I want to thank everybody for their valuable input in response to my last inquiry about digital slide scanners.  Taking into consideration the information that I received here and based on my own research, our lab is currently demoing a Nanozoomer 2.0 scanner.  I would really appreciate any feedback from anybody who has extensive experience with this system, especialy regarding the stability of the system and its fluorescence scanning capabilities, since thereis a limitation of only three colors.  Has anyone experienced any problems with bleedthrough while using their RGB fluorescent cube?

 

The second question is as follows.  I learned about the Olympus VS110 Virtual Microscopy System from the rep while he was showing us the Nanozoomer.  This is a relatively new system, and I would appreciate any feedback from people who actually saw/used this sytem beyond what it says on the website and what the rep told me.  I'm not sure if any lab here has one, since this is new technology, but I decided to ask just in case.

 

Again, thank you very much in advance for any info you can provide,

 

 

Yevgeniy

 
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[David Burk]

Yevgeniy,

We have the Nanozoomer 1.0 in our core and use it quite a bit for scanning
in situs, IHC slides (DAB), H&E stained tissue sections, and fluorescently
labeled tissue slides.  

It works quite well in brightfield mode and unless the tissue is very small
the system does a good job of finding the tissue, focusing, and scanning.
Bubbles or other mounting artifacts can cause the system to focus and scan
on a much larger area than you may want.  In addition, if your slides aren't
squeaky clean you can tell on your final images.  Streaks or dried drops of
mounting media on your coverslips make for lousy data.  

The Zoomer's fluorescent capabilities are not it's strong suit.  We tell our
users to avoid DAPI as the bleedthrough into the FITC band is horrendous
using their triple cube.  We stick with FITC/PI when possible.  That's not
to say you can't run DAPI/FITC/TxRed - you just can't definitively state
that the FITC signal you see in the nucleus is your protein of interest and
not just DAPI signal.  I find that the autofocus works well about 60-70% of
the time with fluorescence depending on the strength of the signal.  In
addition, we begin to see banding in the final image if the signal is weak,
the system has been on for a while, or if the bulb is not aligned perfectly.
 On days where we are scanning a lot in fluorescence we typically calibrate
the system twice a day.  If you REALLY need to use three colors you could
scan the slide three times, switching the cube in between scans.  Placing
some tiny beads that fluoresce in all wavelengths on two corners of the
slide can act as fiduciary markers for reconstructing the merged image
(which you have to do in separate software).

Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions and I'll do my best
to answer them.

David

 
On Fri, 5 Feb 2010 13:25:46 -0500, Yevgeniy Romin <[hidden email]> wrote:

>Hello All
>
>First, I want to thank everybody for their valuable input in response to my
last inquiry about digital slide scanners.  Taking into consideration the
information that I received here and based on my own research, our lab is
currently demoing a Nanozoomer 2.0 scanner.  I would really appreciate any
feedback from anybody who has extensive experience with this system,
especialy regarding the stability of the system and its fluorescence
scanning capabilities, since thereis a limitation of only three colors.  Has
anyone experienced any problems with bleedthrough while using their RGB
fluorescent cube?
>
>The second question is as follows.  I learned about the Olympus VS110
Virtual Microscopy System from the rep while he was showing us the
Nanozoomer.  This is a relatively new system, and I would appreciate any
feedback from people who actually saw/used this sytem beyond what it says on
the website and what the rep told me.  I'm not sure if any lab here has one,
since this is new technology, but I decided to ask just in case.

>
>Again, thank you very much in advance for any info you can provide,
>
>
>Yevgeniy
>
>
>     =====================================================================
>    
>     Please note that this e-mail and any files transmitted with it may be
>     privileged, confidential, and protected from disclosure under
>     applicable law. If the reader of this message is not the intended
>     recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this
>     message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any
>     reading, dissemination, distribution, copying, or other use of this
>     communication or any of its attachments is strictly prohibited.  If
>     you have received this communication in error, please notify the
>     sender immediately by replying to this message and deleting this
>     message, any attachments, and all copies and backups from your
>     computer.
>