Apr 22 2009
Cambridge Research + Instrumentation, Inc. (CRi) introduced the Vectra™ Intelligent Slide Analysis System at the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Denver. The Vectra system is the world's only multispectral brightfield- and fluorescence-capable solution for rapidly generating high-resolution cellular and tissue images from samples stained with standard H+E, immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence techniques.
The Vectra system utilizes CRi’s inForm™ Advanced Image Analysis Software, which leverages proprietary machine-learning technology to make it possible to better understand inter-molecular interactions within individual cells.
“Vectra’s intelligent scanning approach provides a more efficient and faster alternative to whole-slide scanning,” said Clifford Hoyt, VP and CTO at CRi. “You get quantitative information, as well as higher-contrast images of each signal, in many cases impossible to visualize using any other means.”
Compared with conventional means, the new instrument enables much more accurate and dramatically faster imaging of breast cancer and lymphoma tissue, as well as prostate and kidney specimens. Preclinical studies that formerly took weeks or months scanning hundreds or thousands of slides can now be done in days.
According to Dr. Michael Feldman of the University of Pennsylvania, “CRi’s Vectra has allowed us to break the boundary of routine immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence studies by supporting multiplexed staining and analysis to reveal the underlying biological processes that are represented in our pathology slides. This has greatly expanded our ability to use pathology slides to ask and answer questions about human disease.”
“Vectra and InForm go beyond the capabilities of a routine microscope or whole slide scanner by allowing high-order mutliplexing with advanced cytometric analysis.”