Bio-Rad EXQuest Spot Cutter - Manual (Page 14)

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1. Introduction
1.1 Overview of PDQuest
PDQuest is a software package for imaging, analyzing, and databasing Raw 2-D
electrophoresis gels.
The software runs in a Windows or Macintosh environment and has a graphical
interface with standard pull-down menus, toolbars, and keyboard commands.
PDQuest can acquire images of gels using any of several Bio-Rad imaging systems.
An image of a gel is captured using the controls in the imaging device window and
displayed on your computer screen. The scanned gel can then be cropped, rotated, etc.
using the image editing controls.
Spot Detection, Analysis and Databasing
With Automated Spot Detection and Matching you can select the gels you want to
anlayze, detect spots of interest, create a MatchSet, and match gels all from one
dialog box. The Spot Detection Wizard guides you through the process of identifying
and quantifying the spots in the gel image.
After detection, gels in the same experimental series are placed in a MatchSet for
comparison, statistical analysis, and databasing. Histograms allow you to quickly
compare the quantities of the same spot in all the gels in a matchset. Spots can also be
compared qualitatively, organized into user-defined sets for further analysis, and
annotated and databased for easy identification. Spots from different experimental
series can be organized and compared in high-level matchsets.
PDQuest can be used to simultaneously analyze thousands of spots on hundreds of
gels. Data can be exported to other applications such as spreadsheets for further
analysis.