Improving data transfer by 700% with the Prime BSI Express
Wyss Center, Jetraw by Dotphoton, Teledyne Photometrics
Key Results
- 87% less storage required
- 700% faster dataset transfers (from 4h to 30min)
- Seamless collaboration across global teams
Challenge
The Wyss Center (Geneva, Switzerland) serves more than 150 users and institutes, specialising in large tissue 3D scanning, whole brain imaging, 3D transcriptomics, neuroanatomy of neuronal circuits and much more. The Advanced Lightsheet Imaging Center (ALICe) within the Wyss Center is one of Europe’s leading neuroimaging facilities, with advanced microscopy systems and scientific cameras such as Teledyne Photometrics' Prime BSI Express, researchers capture highly detailed datasets that generate terabytes of data. Moving a single 2 TB dataset over a 1 Gbit/s connection took more than four hours. Limited storage, rising cloud costs, and fragmented access slowed collaboration and delayed experiments worldwide.
Solution
dotphoton (Zug, Switzerland) specialises in advanced image data compression solutions that preserve raw image quality while significantly reducing file sizes, ideal for high content imaging applications such as those used at ALICe. dotphoton's main image data management solution is Jetraw, software that sits between microscopes and storage systems and streamlines the entire workflow from acquisition to storage. Jetraw accelerates data transfer and reduces storage requirements by an average factor of seven, while preserving raw image quality in a compliant and secure way.
With Jetraw integrated into the Wyss Center’s imaging infrastructure, all data from advanced acquisition systems and scientific cameras such as Teledyne Photometrics' Prime BSI Express is reduced by an average of 87% in size and transferred 700% faster, while preserving the highest image quality. A 2 TB dataset now moves in just 30 minutes, enabling seamless global collaboration without workflow changes and accelerating research progress.
Transferring large datasets used to be a major bottleneck in our workflow. Jetraw with the Prime BSI Express camera enables us to significantly enhance the impact of our work by facilitating the rapid sharing of large datasets, supporting numerous collaborations worldwide.
Dr. Laura Batti, ALICe Facility Manager, Wyss Center
High-throughput imaging systems at Wyss generate over 100 TB of data annually. Among them, the Clearscope light-sheet microscope produces particularly demanding datasets, with single experiments often exceeding 2 TB. Transferring such datasets across a 1 Gbit/s connection could take over four hours, while storage limitations, cloud costs, and fragmented access slowed collaborations and delayed experiments.
The Jetraw solution has been implemented across all light-sheet systems to support the efficient handling and sharing of large-scale imaging datasets. On the ClearScope, optimized for high-resolution imaging of large and complex samples such as whole-organ and multiregion acquisitions of cleared human tissues, Jetraw preserves the uncompromised quality of Teledyne Photometrics' Prime BSI Express cameras for downstream visualization and analysis.
The Wyss Center achieved an 8:1 compression ratio, reducing storage needs by 87% and cutting dataset transfer times from four hours to just 30 minutes. Researchers can now share data seven times faster, enabling global teams to collaborate more effectively while reducing infrastructure costs.
Before Jetraw, transferring data across teams and systems was slow, costly, and unreliable. Today, datasets transfer smoothly between local storage systems, NAS, and cloud environments, with compressed files directly accessible in analysis tools. Improved data handling capacity allows Wyss Center to broaden access to its facility, strengthen international collaborations, and support new large-scale neuroscience projects at the forefront of research.
Looking ahead, efficient data compression and management on systems like the ClearScope will be essential for high-throughput applications such as large-scale organoid imaging. By cutting storage demands and accelerating data transfer, Jetraw enables scalable workflows and unlocks screening strategies that were previously not feasible.
Dr. Laura Batti, ALICe Facility Manager, Wyss Center
Prime BSI Express
The Prime BSI Express is a powerful, flexible solution for light-sheet microscopy, being the sCMOS camera of choice for the Wyss Center's ClearScope imaging system. Thanks to a small pixel and large FOV, it allows for sub-cellular resolutions across a large sample. Furthermore, the presence of both a high dynamic range 16-bit mode and a low noise 12-bit CMS mode, users can choose the mode for their imaging, resulting in high sensitivity imaging at a high dynamic range.
The Prime BSI Express also features Programmable Scan Mode, where the direction and speed of camera readout can be controlled. This is ideal for scanning light-sheet techniques where the beam sweep across the sample can be synchronized with camera readout.
Overall, the Prime BSI Express is a proven solution for light-sheet microscopy, and in combination with Jetraw, vast sums of data can be acquired and easily transferred for analysis.
Learn More About The Prime BSI Express