BREMEN, Germany — May 14, 2013 — MALDI (Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization) imaging is a mass spectrometric imaging technique that allows the untargeted measurement of proteins, peptides, lipids, drugs and metabolites directly from tissue. MALDI imaging has been successfully applied in various research fields. A particular area of application is the histopathology research concerned with the definition of molecular phenotypes in cancer, like expression patterns that are associated with progression of cancer, or the discovery of novel proteins associated with metastasis.

Technological improvements in recent years have increased the acquisition speed and spatial resolution of MALDI imaging datasets, generating demand for software that can handle the massive amount of data and helps in the generation of biological knowledge.

SCiLS Lab is the software developed by SCiLS GmbH which allows the user-friendly statistical analysis of large MALDI imaging datasets. It features new concepts such as an edge-preserving spatial de-noising and spatial segmentation of datasets with virtually un-limited size. It also allows the comprehensive analysis of studies with many patients, including unsupervised clustering and supervised classification.

“Comprehensive statistical analysis of large MALDI imaging datasets is one of the major demands of our customers”, said Dr. Shannon Cornett, Applications Development Manager and expert for MALDI imaging at Bruker. “The SCiLS team has channeled their mathematical and statistical expertise into a software product that surpasses anything that is currently available on the market. It integrates perfectly with our own flexImaging™ software and will be an integral part of our complete MALDI imaging solution. Unquestionably, SCiLS Lab will set new standards for analyzing MALDI imaging data, and I am confident that our customers will see tremendous benefit from this exclusive collaboration as it improves their imaging workflow.”

Dr. Dennis Trede, Managing Director at SCiLS GmbH, added: “We are happy to collaborate with the market and technology leader in the field of MALDI imaging and to benefit from Bruker’s distribution channels. We believe our software can push MALDI imaging forward by enabling the analysis of large data sets with unprecedented ease of use for everyone.”

Dr. Ferdinand von Eggeling, Professor at the University Hospital in Jena, Germany and user of Bruker’s MALDI imaging equipment explains: “We use MALDI imaging for the molecular analysis of head and neck cancers. My lab has been beta-testing the SCiLS Lab software, and the SCiLS team has been very knowledgeable and responsive to our suggestions. This software will enable the analysis of complex tumor tissues and make results more descriptive and accessible.”