TRIP Lab

• The whole slide scanner is an Aperio CS2 from Leica Biosystems.
• The scanner can scan slides at either 20x or 40x and there is a 10x objective for a total magnification of 200x or 400x. The resulting eSlides can be viewed at any magnification up to the magnification it was scanned at.
• The image files produced by the scanner can be very large and the exact size depends on the magnification (20x or 40x) and the physical size of the specimen. A large specimen at 40x can be over 4GB. An average sized specimen at 20x is usually around 500MB.
• The scanner does scan the slide label as well. If it has any information on it that needs to be covered up (e.g. patient information), you are responsible for doing so. We will not scan slides with any PHI visible on them.
• The image files produced by the scanner are in a proprietary format (SVS). They can be viewed using a piece of software called Aperio ImageScope. It's free, but only compatible with Microsoft Windows. You can install it on as many computers you want.
• It is possible to extract TIFF or JPG images from an SVS file using Aperio ImageScope. TRIP will not perform the extraction for you, you must do it yourself. The Aperio ImageScope manual explains how to use both the Snapshot tool and the Extract Region tool.
• The eSlide files will be uploaded to Google Drive and shared with your email address (UW-Madison employees/students already have Google Drive accounts associated with their UW NetID). Alternatively, the files can be transferred to a flash drive or external hard drive provided by you.
• There is a price difference between 20x and 40x scanning because 40x takes significantly longer to scan. For the same reason, there is a price difference for large format slides.
• After the customer takes delivery of the digital slide files, the TRIP lab does not retain any copies of those files. The customer is responsible for storing and backing up their files in an appropriate manner. If the customer loses the files after they’ve taken delivery of them, the slides will need to be re-scanned at normal TRIP rates.
• Slides must be dropped off and picked up from Mark Smith's office (CSC L5/145).
• Turn around time varies depending on current workload and staffing. If you have timing requirements, contact us before submitting a service request to see if we're able to meet your requirements.
• If you’d like to see a sample eSlide, you can download it and the Aperio ImageScope software necessary to view it at this link: https://go.wisc.edu/ti30cg