Are you spending hours on tedious spot editing, but want to put your time to better use? SameSpots, our 2D gel image analysis software, can help… and it can also give you reproducible results between different users.
Using our Image QC feature, SameSpots saves users time by quality checking images and flagging any issues prior to any analysis. This step is important as poor image quality can make gel analysis difficult. It can increase subjectivity and may mean your results are less accurate. Image QC checks images for the following:
If any issues are detected, you also have the opportunity within the system to make minor changes, without changing the original image. This includes flipping images horizontally and vertically, rotating images 90° clockwise or anticlockwise, inverting the image and cropping the image.
To see how SameSpots and its image quality checker can be used in your lab environment contact us for a free trial.
We moved to SameSpots as it gives much more robust analysis of DIGE experiments - no ‘missing data’ issues and lots of statistical tools. The other major factor is that TotalLab is continually improving the software and works closely with customers to respond to their needs and suggestions.
Mike Dunn
- Professor of Biomedical Proteomics, UCD Conway Institute, Ireland and Vice-President of the British Society for Proteome Research, Dublin, Ireland
We’re often asked if DIGE gels can be used within SameSpots and the answer is, ‘yes’. The DIGE experiments can be set up before alignment and the SameSpots software automatically deals with all measurement calculations.
We use alignment, which takes two images and overlays them in the same co-ordinate space, so that a spot on image A will be in the same location at the matching spot on image B.
Images can be accurately compared as alignment removes the positional variation between images, which may be introduced during the gel running and imaging processes. This allows for all images to be overlaid on each other and a single spot pattern to be detected. This image alignment delivers 100 per cent matching, with no missing values in your data, for valid multivariate statistics.
The software then uses intelligent automation to analyse results and produce automatically calculated dendrograms of spot relationships.
SameSpots is user-friendly and straightforward. Therefore, the analysis is 4x faster compared to the competitor software. The minimal user intervention that is necessary to perform the analysis speeds up the process and ensures reproducibility of the results independent of the individual user. SameSpots will enable us to set up a rapid 2D gel analysis workflow to generate exact and highly reproducible data in our lab.
Dr Katja Schlink
- Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Laimburg, Italy
The software is easy to use, with our experienced team providing you with a guided walkthrough of the workflow so you can quickly get to grips with the 2D gel electrophoresis image analysis software.
Once up and running, typical analysis takes just five minutes per gel with either single-stain or 2D DIGE images.
Quick tags can also be used: these are useful for quickly highlighting proteins that show significant changes. Therefore, you can focus your attention on these ‘interesting’ spots for further analysis with mass spectrometry. You can also import protein identifications back into your 2-DE analysis and report alongside quantitative results.
Read our guide to using SameSpots
Read this article to discover the key steps of the SameSpots workflow, and read about SpotCheck, which will help ensure that your 2D gels meet the quality requirements of your lab.
How can I purchase the software?
Our software is available directly. It is also available with a number of gel documentation systems. Please contact us at sales@totallab.com to get more details.
My question isn't listed here, where should I go?
We have more answered questions on our FAQ page here and we’re always adding to this and likewise to our resources page where you may find the answer you need. If you’re still unsure you can always contact our support desk, support@totallab.com.