The Amersham .gel file format is based on the tiff standard. ImageJ
will read .gel files because they are tiff files. Unfortunately
Amersham scanners (e.g. Typhoon and Storm) transform the original
pixel values by taking their square root and scaling them before
saving them to a .gel file. When imagej opens a .gel file, it doesn't
reverse this transformation making the images appear muted and
unsuitable for quantification.
Here are some links.
A short note about Amersham's .gel file format:
http://www4.amershambiosciences.com/aptrix/upp00919.nsf/content/1F801602120AE332C1256EB400484111?OpenDocument&querytitle=&hometitle=searchA pdf document from when Molecular Dynamics owned the .gel file format:
http://research.stowers-institute.org/efg/ScientificSoftware/Utility/TiffTags/GEL-FileFormat.pdfIf the information in the pdf is current, it should be possible to
read a few private tiff tags from the .gel file and use their values
to reverse the image transformation. Barring this solution, be wary
of quantifying data directly from .gel files.
Best,
Morri
--
Morri Feldman
(415) 514-0575
Shokat Lab
UCSF Biophysics Program
Locked
