Innovative Solutions

History

MetaSystems is an employee-owned German company specializing in automated scanning and imaging for cytogenetics, cancer genetics, toxicology, pathology, forensic sciences and other applications. Founded in 1986 as spin-off from the Institute of Applied Physics at the University of Heidelberg, the company started with the development of an automatic metaphase finding system. The first Metafer system was sold and installed in 1987.

Since the introduction of the karyotyping system Ikaros in 1991, a product addressing a wider market, MetaSystems grew dynamically and established its position as a leading supplier of automated imaging solutions. 1991 the Isis FISH imaging system was launched and was complemented with software upgrades for telomere analysis (1993) and for comparative genomic hybridization analysis (1994).

In early 1997, MetaSystems presented the first commercial software for filter-based 24 color FISH (mFISH) analysis. The DNA probe kit department was established shortly after. In March 1998 the unique high resolution multicolor banding (mBAND) technique was introduced.

With growing demand for automated cell screening the metaphase finderMetafer was further developed to become a multipurpose slide scanning platform. With the introduction of MetaCyte (2000) a second major software module for Metafer was established. MetaCyte started as a spot counter and is today a multiparametric cell feature analysis system.  At the same time the metaphase finder was renamed to MSearch, and Metafer became the name for the scanning platform. As a third member of the Metafer family a rare cell detection system named RCDetect was added. Several products were released in the early new century, including the SlideFeeder and AutoCapt, a software for automated image acquisition (both 2002).

2009/2010 MetaSystems decided to apply its knowledge in automated slide scanning to a new market and launched VSlide, a system for automated virtual slide imaging. VSlide is based on the Metafer slide scanning platform and, thus, provides all the flexibility and performance which characterizes Metafer.

Meanwhile MetaSystems extended its probe kit portfolio to include whole chromosome painting kits (XCP), mouse and rat mFISH kits (21XMouse and 22XRat), arm-specific mFISH kits (XaCyte), and more. In early 2009 MetaSystems introduced a new series of locus-specific probe kits (XL) for use in hematology.

MetaSystems Worldwide

Founded and managed by persons with strong skills in biomedical imaging, MetaSystems is based on 25 years of experience in image analysis, automated microscopy, and hard- and software technology. This background ensures MetaSystems being at the forefront of technology. A number of innovative features have been introduced by MetaSystems for the first time before they were also adopted by our competitors (e.g. high quality laser printer image hardcopy, CGH analysis with real-color karyotyping and profile averaging).

Today, more than 1,600 laboratories in 82 countries rely on the quality and stability of MetaSystems products. Most of the European countries are supported directly from MetaSystems headquarter situated in the vicinity of Heidelberg. In many other countries MetaSystems is very proud to have strong exclusive partners, who take care of the local MetaSystems sales and support our customers in their region. For details on our worldwide partners please refer to the page with contact details.

The North American market is covered by the US office (MetaSystems Group Inc.) located in Boston, MA. In 2005, MetaSystems opened a branch office in Hong Kong, China, named MetaSystems Asia Ltd. It provides technical and sales support to the Far Eastern and Southern Pacific regions. The latest foundation, MetaSystems India (Bangalore) P Ltd., was established in May 2012 with the aim to more closely serve the very important market in India.

MetaSystems believes that a global company should foster a community of partners, users, and customers to achieve a climate of collaboration and friendship. Therefore customer service, training of MetaSystems experts all over the world, and direct communication are central parts of the MetaSystems philosophy. Since 2002 MetaSystems organizes and arranges a yearly distributor meeting, where all partner companies are invited. On this meeting latest developments are presented, and current topics are discussed. As a result of these meetings, we and our partners throughout the world understand ourselves as member of a global MetaSystems family.