Data handling

MetaXpress or in full name "MetaXpress® High-Content Image Acquisition and Analysis Software" is a commercially available closed source software for high-content analysis from Molecular Devices, LLC.. The program is a kind of visually guided workflow programming environment. There is a programming module called CME (custom module editor) which lets one setup integrated workflows for bioimage analysis with visual feedback. It is designed for high-throughput in connection with a included database which stores the experimental data. 

It has several toolboxes for semiautomated processing of various tasks:

3D Analysis (requires Custom Module Editor), Curve fitting, Transmitted light segmentation (requires Custom Module Editors), Angiogenesis tube formation, Cell cycle, Cell health, Cell scoring , Count nuclei, Granularity, Live/dead , Mitotic index, Micronuclei , Monopole detection, Multi-Wavelength cell scoring, Multi-wavelength translocation, Neurite outgrowth , Transfluor® Assay, Translocation* (includes Translocation-Enhanced*) , Transfluor HT Assay , Nuclear translocation HAT, Cell proliferation HT

After the workflow is setup it is possible to apply it automatically to a stack of stored images. The derived data from those analyses is stored in the metaxpress database and can be exported from there.

The use of each toolbox requires a separate license.

Fractal is a framework to process high-content imaging data at scale and prepare it for interactive visualization. Fractal provides distributed workflows that convert TBs of image data into OME-Zarr files. The platform then processes the 3D image data by applying tasks like illumination correction, maximum intensity projection, 3D segmentation using cellpose and measurements using napari workflows. The pyramidal OME-Zarr files enable interactive visualization in the napari viewer.

It stitches 3D tiles from terabyte-size microscopy datasets. Stitching does not require any prior information on the actual positions of the tiles, sample fiducials, or conversion of raw TIFF images, and the stitched images can be explored instantly.

MosaicExplorerJ was specifically designed to process lightsheet microscopy datasets from optically cleared samples. It can handle multiple fluorescence channels, dual-side lightsheet illumination and dual-side camera detection.

Orthanc aims at providing a simple, yet powerful standalone DICOM server. It is designed to improve the DICOM flows in hospitals and to support research about the automated analysis of medical images. Orthanc lets its users focus on the content of the DICOM files, hiding the complexity of the DICOM format and of the DICOM protocol.

Orthanc can turn any computer running Windows, Linux or OS X into a DICOM store (in other words, a mini-PACS system). Its architecture is lightweight and standalone, meaning that no complex database administration is required, nor the installation of third-party dependencies.

What makes Orthanc unique is the fact that it provides a RESTful API. Thanks to this major feature, it is possible to drive Orthanc from any computer language. The DICOM tags of the stored medical images can be downloaded in the JSON file format. Furthermore, standard PNG images can be generated on-the-fly from the DICOM instances by Orthanc.

Orthanc also features a plugin mechanism to add new modules that extends the core capabilities of its REST API. A Web viewer, a PostgreSQL database back-end, a MySQL database back-end, and a reference implementation of DICOMweb are currently freely available as plugins.