FAQ

Answer:

Just follow this link and download a fully operational 15-day trial version. In the trial version, you may load 5 new images, or open the sample images.

Answer:

EZQuant-Gel can be installed on a computer running Windows XP SP2 (or later) or Windows Vista.
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 must be installed first; it can be downloaded here. Note that installing the .NET Framework requires administrator privileges. If you do not have administrator privileges on your computer, please contact your system administrator for assistance.

Answer:

Licenses can be purchased either online - through our website, using a credit card. Alternatively, you may pay with a purchase order from your institute, by contacting our sales department at info@ezquant.com.

Answer:

EZQuant-Gel’s license is a floating license. It can be opened from any computer the software has been installed on. You may install EZQuant-Gel on your lab computers, at home and on your laptop without limitation. The number of licenses purchased is the limit for the number computers that can open EZQuant-Gel simultaneously.

Answer:

EZQuant-Gel can analyze any gel type, including chemiluminescence, fluorescence and radioactive labeled gels or blots. Images of western blot, dot blot, PCR, northern blot and other assays can be loaded into EZQuant-Gel and analyzed easily and rapidly. It makes no difference if you acquire your image using a CCD camera or by scanning a film. Once an image is generated, it can be analyzed.

Please note that only 8-bit and 16-bit images in .jpg, .gif, .tiff or .bmp formats are suitable. Converting images to grayscale is not necessary.

Answer:

Since EZQuant-Gel uses a highly advanced algorithm for boundary detection, the bands in the gel image are detected regardless of the background that surrounds them. For that reason, variation in background intensity throughout the gel image does not interfere with the accurate quantification of the bands.
Draw the background rectangle in an area that best represents the background of your gel image. Areas between the lanes are usually regarded as a good baseline. If the background intensity varies throughout the gel image, set the background rectangle on the brightest area. You can also set the background rectangle so it will contain several background intensities, and average the background level.
In extreme situations, in which there are two very different background intensities in your gel image, you may divide the analysis into two sets of experiments. For each experiment, set the representative background definition and detect the appropriate bands.

Answer:

Following the detection of the bands in your gel image, select the Band Join Tool and in the gel image, click on the bands you want to join. This merges the chosen bands into one entity, named Join # in the Experiment Explorer. In the Results Preview Window, the displayed values represent the sum of the joined bands.

Answer:

When the bands in your gel image are surrounded by non-specific staining, the automatic boundary detection algorithm might not distinguish correctly between the band and the adjacent non-specific staining. In order to achieve accurate band quantification you can use two tools provided by EZQuant-Gel:
1. Select the band that requires boundary correction. Click the Band Select/Edit Tool and
adjust the band’s detection boundaries using the Boundary Control Bar.
2. Select the Band Delimiter Tool and draw a line (or several lines) separating between
the band and the adjacent non-specific staining.

Answer:

In rare occasions, a specific band may not be detected by the Auto Band Tool. If this occurs, select the Band Select/Edit Tool, and click on the band in your gel image. This will detect the band and set its detection boundary.
If a band’s boundaries were incorrectly detected, select the band you want to correct, click the Band Select/Edit Tool and adjust the band’s detection boundaries using the Boundary Control Bar.
Since bands are automatically numbered according to their detection order, note that a newly detected band will be numbered regardless of its position in the gel image, and will appear at the bottom of the group’s list in the Experiment Explorer. To change a band’s number, double click its name in the Experiment Explorer, and type in a new name. Change the band’s location in the Experiment Explorer by clicking the band’s number and dragging it to the correct location.

Answer:

Detecting bands in the gel image automatically creates an experimental group branch under the experiment’s name, which contains the newly detected bands. Additional bands will be automatically added to the existing group, until you choose to open a new experimental group. This can be performed by clicking the New Group Branch in the Experiment Explorer Tree. Once you open a new group, the newly detected bands will appear under the new group branch. If you want to add bands to a previously opened group, click the group’s name to detect the new bands.

Detected bands can be moved between the different groups. This is done by clicking on a band’s name in the Experiment Explorer and dragging it to a different group. In addition, dragging an existing band to the new group branch opens a new group that contains this band.

Answer:

The Results Preview Window contains 5 values for each band:
• Name: the band’s name as it appears on the gel image and the Experiment Explorer.
• Area: the band’s area (in pixels), as detected automatically by EZQuant-Gel or determined manually by using the Boundary Control Bar.
• Density: the band’s average “darkness” level, as calculated by EZQuant-Gel according to the band’s average color intensity per pixel.
• Rank: the band’s final value (in arbitrary units) - an adjusted calculation that represents the band’s area and density relative to the background value.
• Standard: presence of a standard tag (Yes/No).