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UF Health University of Florida
Molecular Pathology Core Histology & IHC; Pathology, Immunology, and Lab. Med., College of Medicine
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Services Overview

Whole Slide Scanning- VS200

A whole slide image (WSI) is accomplished by digital scanning and allows online viewing of your entire stained section.

Slide scanning is an excellent way to archive and share slides, perform quantitative image analysis, and create publication-quality images.

More information about the MPC Olympus VS200 can be found here. This scanner was awarded through an NIH Shared Instrumentation Grant and installed in November 2023. It is both a brightfield and fluorescence scanner with a 210-slide tower.

Image analysis programs are available on a dedicated analysis workstation in D11-37.

Submit Slides

Clinical slides? Do not submit slides with private health information (PHI)- conceal with an opaque temporary label.
  • Submit the online Whole Slide Scanning form.
  • Drop off slides at the front D11-41 submissions counter.
  • Turnaround time is 0.5-2 work days depending on the total slide number and current workload.
  • Let staff know of any deadlines at the time of slide submission. 
  • You will receive an email when the WSI files are ready for transfer using DropBox. Slides can be picked up at the D11-41 submissions counter.

Prepare Slides

Best results are obtained with a #1.5 thickness coverslip and tissues with even thickness (4-5um) (more about Slide Quality below). Slides with air bubbles, cracks, marks, extra or wet mounting media, plastic coverslips, or thick slide labels may require additional efforts to obtain a quality scan. Sections placed close to slide edges or small coverslips will affect quality and image analysis as these edges can be interpreted by software as tissue. These issues can be corrected by having a specimen re-cut, re-cover slipped, or re-stained.

Slide Quality

Best scanning results will be obtained from glass slides with #1.5 thickness coverslips and regular thickness (4-5 microns) tissues. Slides with marks (such as ink dots), extra mounting medium, non-glass slides, plastic coverslips, thick labels, and labels that are going around the slide present challenges for automatically finding the tissue and proper imaging. These artifacts may need to be removed to obtain an optimal scan. Images are individually reviewed once the scanning is completed. Scans with poor quality will be rescanned manually to achieve the maximum quality possible. The equipment can not scan slides with wet mounting media, more than two slide labels, labels on the back or the bottom of the slide, double slides, or broken slides. The slide and coverslip should be free of fingerprints, dust, and dirt. Any pen markers on the slide also need to be removed as the scanner will consider such marks as tissue. Faint stains, air bubbles, thick sections, or marks on the glass surface can cause lower scan quality. In some cases, sample recut or restaining may be recommended.

View Scans

NIH Acknowledgement in Publications

  • Please acknowledge funding for this instrument as follows: This work utilized an Olympus VS200 whole slide scanner purchased with an NIH shared instrumentation grant 1S10OD032236-01A1  and operated by the University of Florida Molecular Pathology Core (RRID:SCR_016601).

Scanning Fees and Invoicing

Please visit the Fee page for information on costs and billing.