NanoZoomer S60 Brighfield System

Waiver Rationale Summary

The Hamamatsu NanoZoomer Brightfield Slide Scanner system is capable of sensitive, high-resolution, automated, high throughput scanning and digitizing of glass slides. The instrument has a small footprint that fits within the current space allocation of the BIS in bldg. 4. Three unique features of the S60 that distinguish it from similar instruments are its scanning speed (60s per slide), flexibility, and ease of use. Examples of the instrument’s flexibility include the options to generate high quality brightfield images from either single or double sized slides, using 20X or 40X magnification, and the option of z-stacking thick sections of tissue with the number of levels and the distance between levels set by the investigator. It is essential that the base unit can be field upgraded to fluorescence slide scanning by the addition of a 3 color fluorescence Imaging Module and/or barcode reader when funds become available. Multiple brightfield and fluorescence images can be overlaid for objective and quantitative combined biomarker analysis including multiple antigens colocalized within the same subcellular compartment. The image analysis software utilized is available in both PC and MAC platforms, does not require purchase of individual licenses, and is extremely user friendly.