Light Microscope Microscope

Axio Scan.Z1

Your Fast and Reliable Slide Scanner for Brightfield and Fluorescence

Outstanding Image Quality for Even The Most Demanding Virtual Microscopy

Digitize your specimens and create high-quality virtual slides the reliable, reproducible way – with Axio Scan.Z1. Superior ZEISS components guarantee the excellence of your images, giving you virtual slides of a consistently high quality even when capturing fluorescence images at unprecedented speed.

Highly automated and simple to operate, Axio Scan.Z1 tackles the most demanding virtual microscopy research tasks as easily as it handles your routine work. The software module ZEN slidescan is designed specifically for the workflow of capturing virtual slides, while ZEN image analysis tools prepare your data accurately.

Organize your virtual slides with ZEN browser, the web-based database, then view your data from any location using any operating system — or share virtual microscopy images online with colleagues and organize your projects, even when you are on the go.

More Information

Simpler, Intelligent and Integrated Virtual Microscopy – Create Exceptional Fluorescence Images as Virtual Slides at High Speed

Axio Scan.Z1 is Autocalibrating, Easy to Retrofit and Guarantees Reliable Reproducibility – Every Time.

Highlights of Axio Scan.Z1 Virtual Microscopy

  • Digitize up to nine parallel fluorescence channels
  • Three synchronized high-speed filter wheels for excitation, color separation and emission can change channel in under 40 milliseconds
  • Sensitive cameras, highly corrected optics and perfected light sources for exceptional image quality in your virtual slides and short exposure times
  • Colibri.2 LED light source treats your microscopy samples very gently
  • Switch excitation wavelengths in milliseconds
  • No mechanical components move in the optical beam path when using tri-band and quad-band filter sets for virtual microscopy
  • Automatic calibration, from geometric to color calibration, reproduces virtual slides precisely and makes them compatible between systems
  • Decide how many virtual slides, which detection modes and what camera you need – and retrofit your Axio Scan.Z1 as you need it
  • Modular tray concept – tray design affords you maximum freedom with broad tolerances, with capacity to digitize samples of 26 mm x 76 mm and 52 mm x 76 mm
  • Access to all settings, with ease of operation from automated and monitored profiles
  • Automatically store metadata with your virtual slides, allowing you to retrieve a record of all virtual microscopy operations at the click of a button

Applications

Versatile Virtual Microscopy Highest Quality Virtual Slides for Multiple Applications

ZEISS Axio Scan.Z1 creates exceptional quality virtual slides for your applications. It offers unparalleled results in many virtual microscopy contexts, including:

  • Pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s – high-resolution virtual slides in brightfield with image analysis, helping you develop analytical models in transgenic mice for amyloid deposition
  • Cancer research – use virtual microscopy to research the rudiments of cancer with excellent quality virtual slides in fluorescence, combined with high throughput
  • ADME/Toxicology – automate image analysis workflow and peer reviews thanks to automated calibration, image analysis and remote viewing
  • Fluorescence in-site hybridization (FISH) – determine the number of single sequence copies in the genome using multichannel fluorescence and depth of field
  • Target identification – identify and characterize targets for pharmaceutical active substance searches using sensitive fluorescence imaging and gentle specimen treatment
  • Immunological response to allografts and xenografts – identify specific cell phenotypes and gain insight into cellular interactions in tissues using high dynamic range and zero artifact imaging in your virtual microscopy
  • Neurotrauma research – quantify brain injury measurements using z-stack imaging and robust, high-throughput imaging for your virtual slides
  • Tissue microarrays – reliable sample detection and robust scanning process for resource-friendly use of reagents and tissues
  • Biomedical contract research – flexible, configurable imaging for virtual slides using tray concept for sample carriers that are hard to standardize

Imaging

ZEN slidescan: Versatile and Simple Software for Your Virtual Microscopy

Axio Scan.Z1’s ZEN imaging software is founded upon an intuitive user concept that allows you to define functions for users and user groups according to their knowledge and responsibilities. ZEN responds by proposing settings and following up with action where appropriate. Smart-Setup, for example, provides an intuitive interface and workflow even for complex fluorescence experiments. Just choose the dyes and ZEN will suggest all other settings to create crisp virtual slides. Deconvolution produces crystal clear virtual microscopy images that correspond to an optical section, free of extraneous light that is caused by diffraction.

Axio Scan.Z1 comes complete with ZEN lite, a software package for editing and viewing your virtual slides. You can use the overview screen to navigate to your regions of interest, tracing the regions you’ve visited at any time. Make annotations on your virtual slides as you need them with circles, rectangles, lines, arrows, text, contours and profiles. Compare up to 16 virtual slides and then link them for navigation, creating – for example – a way to make a direct comparison with serial sections.

You can process the CZI file format from ZEISS as well as images in TIFF, JPEG, PNG and GIF formats for maximum compatibility and sharing of your virtual microscopy. Choose 2D and Histo from the views menu or use the gallery. You can also use sharpen, blur, geometric functions and color adjustments in single and batch mode.

With ZEN lite, you can carry out simple interactive measurements and export your measurements – such as lengths, areas and angles – as data tables for use in your spreadsheet program. Rounding off the ZEN lite features for virtual microscopy are a zooming workspace, design schemas for darkened and bright areas as well as reports.

Organize & Share

ZEN browser for Virtual Microscopy Data Organization and Sharing

Virtual slides provide you with a wealth of valuable data, meaning you will need plenty of storage space and a good filing structure to achieve high throughput. Axio Scan.Z1 comes complete with ZEN browser, allowing you to organize your virtual microscopy data online and across platforms via an intuitive web interface. This keeps your images filed together with relevant metadata and supporting documents. The user management function restricts access to authorized individuals only.

ZEN browser for iPad and iPhone is free and lets you build up your virtual slides database via a mobile app, allowing you to access your virtual microscopy data wherever your work takes you. You can also use it for:

  • Expert network organization – exchange virtual microscopy data by granting independent access to images and documents from any location
  • Multi-user and multi-permission access – organize the virtual microscopy data pool in local study groups and evaluate findings
  • Impromptu information exchange – share findings and virtual slides with peers at any time and in any place, thanks to high image quality and remote access for mobile devices
  • Publishing projects online – make your data and virtual microscopy images accessible to a wider audience, with a project-based, web-centric database that allows integrated web viewing. 

With ZEN browser, you can also insert annotations and view images in transmitted light and multi-channel fluorescence virtual microscopy photos with a z-stack. The CZI format from ZEISS provides a wealth of benefits when creating virtual slides, and manufacturers such as Visiopharm and MicroBrightfield will soon support it.