Glencoe Software, the world-leading supplier of image data management solutions for the academic, biotech, pharma and publication industries, is delighted to announce a new partnership with the Carl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH, Jena, Germany.

Glencoe Software and ZEISS will collaborate to extend the open source Bio-Formats^® image file conversion library to support whole slide images compressed with the JPEG XR compression scheme, like those recorded by the ZEISS Axio Scan.Z1 virtual slide scanner.

ZEISS Axio Scan.Z1 is a fast and reliable whole slide scanner for brightfield and fluorescence samples that is used to record virtual slides of tissue sections in leading research and clinical pathology labs around the world. The collaboration will add support for files compressed with JPEG XR to Bio-Formats, the image file translation library built and released by Glencoe Software and the Open Microscopy Environment (OME). Bio-Formats^® is used by thousands of scientists and clinicians worldwide to access their image data for processing and analysis. The software developed in the collaboration will be included in the open source distribution of Bio-Formats^®, so that the worldwide Bio-Formats^® user community, including researchers, pathologists and imaging specialists worldwide can use the output of this collaboration.  

In announcing the agreement, Dr. Thorsten Heupel, the responsible Product Manager for Digital Pathology at ZEISS, said: “Axio Scan.Z1 is now used by hundreds of customers, and many of them are working with open-source software using Bio-Formats^®. We are pleased to have this fruitful cooperation to realize JPEG XR compression as an asset for our users and the whole community. ZEISS Axio Scan.Z1 generates whole slide images fast and in perfect quality. With multi-modal imaging and a dynamic range of up to 16bit, an effective compression supporting these features is key and will now be implemented, thanks to Glencoe Software adding the support for JPEG XR to Bio-Formats^®.”

Dr. Jason Swedlow, Founder and President of Glencoe Software, Inc., said, “I am delighted to announce this collaboration with ZEISS to add support for JPEG XR compression to Bio-Formats^®. We are particularly excited that the software we build in this collaboration will be available for anyone to download and use. This is a great example of how industrial partners can work together and build important capabilities that benefit the global scientific and pathology imaging communities. The work we do together will benefit users of ZEISS Axio Scan.Z1 and indeed anyone who uses JPEG XR compression in their image data.”  

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