Aperio Awarded Pre-Focus Patent for Use in Microscope Slide Scanners.

Global Digital Pathology Leader Adds Focal Map Technology to Growing Intellectual Property Profile

VISTA, Calif. -- Aperio Technologies, Inc., (Aperio), a global leader in digital pathology for the healthcare and life sciences industry, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued the company patent No. 7,518,652, covering the computation of focus information prior to scanning microscope slides. The patent advances the company's linear array-based suite of ScanScope[R] slide scanning systems used to create high resolution digital slide images by capitalizing on the superior focusing capabilities inherent in line scan camera systems.

The methods covered by the patent include a point-focus procedure that works by moving the microscope slide to a desired measurement location, moving the objective lens through a predefined set of height values, acquiring imagery data at each height, and determining the height of maximum contrast.

Dirk Soenksen, CEO of Aperio said, "This new pre-focus patent represents an important addition to our growing patent portfolio and underscores Aperio's ongoing commitment to intellectual property. Many of our customers understand that Aperio's growing patent portfolio translates into broad freedom to operate, and allows Aperio to continue to be the technology leader in digital pathology without infringing on the intellectual property rights of others."

"One of the advantages of Aperio's line scanning system over conventional tiling systems is the ability to independently focus each line of pixels in the output image, which yields much sharper digital slide images overall," stated Ole Eichhorn, chief technical officer for Aperio. "Our technological leadership and focus on innovation continues to provide the most advanced solutions available to our customers in the rapidly expanding and competitive digital pathology market."

Aperio's patent portfolio encompasses all of the elements that comprise a digital pathology system, including digital slide creation, data management, advanced visualization and image analysis. Aperio holds over 30 issued patents and pending patent applications world-wide and is the digital pathology leader in the global market with an installed base of more than 500 systems in 32 countries.

About Aperio

Aperio is digitizing pathology. We provide systems and services for digital pathology, which is an environment for the management and interpretation of pathology information that originates with the digitization of a glass slide. Aperio's award-winning ScanScope[R] slide scanning systems and Spectrum[TM] digital pathology information management software improve the efficiency and quality of pathology services for pathologists and other professionals. Applications include education, remote viewing, archival and retrieval, basic research and image analysis. Aperio's products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.