Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis is a fundamental technology of proteomics research. Thousands of proteins can be separated on a single gel, representing a large share of the proteins in a sample. By comparing gel images taken from different samples, one can find and later identify proteins that are crucial to fundamental processes of life and to the progression of disease. However, positions of protein spots may vary considerably from one gel to another. These variations can make gel comparison a very tedious process, consuming a large share of the time spent analyzing an experiment.
In 2000, DECODON Delta2D, Version 1.0 introduced rapid visual comparison of 2D-electrophoresis gel images. Delta2D uses advanced image processing technology to eliminate the variation between spot-positions resulting in dual channel images with clearly highlighted differences in protein expression levels. Dual channel images allows for the rapid visual identification of whole sets of proteins whose expression varies from one sample to the other or is influenced by an experimental condition. Typically, Delta2D's approach speeds up the comparison process by a factor of five or even more compared to established 2D gel analysis apporaches.
Spot detection and quantitation can be executed in a subsequent step. Since the gel images are aligned first, a spot consensus can be detected on a composite image summarizing the whole experiments gel information in one artificial but realistically looking fusion gel. Due to using the experiment wide spot consensus an error prone spot matching can be avoided. This result in complete expression profiles without any gaps from undetected spots. The results of the quantitation and matching step are presented in an easy to use tabular view that allows for a wide range of analysis procedures.
Since image warping has become the core technology of Delta2D, significant efforts have been spent to further accelerate and ease it. As a result, with the SmartVectorsTechnology match maps can be derived for a pair of gel images automatically. Continuing Delta2D's tradition, the user keeps control through the smart user interface and handy tools to interact with the algorithms where necessary.
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Please visit www.decodon.com/Tutorials to watch them.