Universal Imaging updates bioimaging software

<%=company1%> (West Chester, PA) recently released Version 4.5 of its MetaMorph bioimaging software system. The updated version features a new interface, an interactive training CD, and new functions for advanced image acquisition, processing, and analysis.

MetaMorph 4.5 runs under Microsoft Windows 95/98 and NT, with support for a variety of black & white and color cooled CCD cameras from major manufacturers. The product features enhancements in the following areas:

• Live cell imaging. With application-specific toolbars such as Fluorescence Tools, users can acquire multiple wavelengths from digital cameras, measuring colocalization between probes and overlaying images.
  
• Image acquisition. The Acquire dialog box includes commands for setting the camera binning, gain, and auto-exposure, and enables users to control camera shutters during acquisition, set exposure times, and acquisition regions.
  
• Quantifying gray values in a sample. The new Region Measurements function combines intensity, area, and other parameters in one interface. Users can label regions on the image with numbers, data, or other text they define.
  
• Advanced features. The software includes two deconvolution commands for removing haze from image planes and new functions for high content screening (HCS). The new HCS Acquire function coordinates control of the stage, the illumination devices, and camera hardware; the HCS Viewer organizes large quantities of image data and measurements into a display for easy analysis.

Software drivers are available to support automated microscopes, filter wheels and shutters, monochromators, focus motors and Piezo electric focus devices, motorized stages, robotic peripherals, and any digital or serial input/output device.

The system comes with a training CD that gives users a tour of the software and describes the most common image acquisition and analysis functions in the MetaMorph system.

Universal Imaging Corp. is a privately held company that provides software and integrated imaging systems to cell biologists. The company's MetaMorph, MetaFluor, and MetaView systems enable scientists to measure fluorescence, motion, intracellular calcium, and other parameters.

For more information, contact Matt Harrington of Universal Imaging Corp. at 610-344-9410, ext. 221, or at matth@universal-imaging.com.

Edited by Jim Pomager
Assistant Editor, Bioresearch Online