Stereo Investigator

Count cells and quantify lengths, areas, and volumes in tissue.

Stereo Investigator is designed to help you obtain the most efficient, precise, and unbiased estimate of cell populations, as well as morphometric properties of biological structures.

MBF offers the only complete, scalable solution from brightfield to confocal stereology. You can add multi-channel fluorescence and confocal capability to a brightfield system as your needs evolve.

Stereo Investigator gives you image analysis, mapping, and measurement tools all in one software package, with more than 20 stereological probes, including the Optical Fractionator, Cavalieri, and Nucleator.

You also benefit from our extensive cooperation with the global microscope leaders, including Zeiss, Olympus, Nikon, and Leica. All of our software is custom-tailored to integrate seamlessly with the hardware we support.

Stereo Investigator has been cited in over one thousand peer-reviewed journal articles—more than any other stereology system. It is an integral component of ongoing work in numerous fields, and it has contributed to recent advances in disease research, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s.

Stereo Investigator is now compatible with 64-bit Microsoft Windows Vista ® and is available in two separate configurations: Standard, which controls full research microscope hardware, and Workstation, for offline analysis away from the microscope. A Pulmonary Edition of Stereo Investigator is also available, featuring the Connectivity Assay probe for counting alveoli. Increase your accuracy, scalability, and efficiency with Stereo Investigator.

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Neurolucida

Advanced software for neuron reconstruction,
3D mapping, and morphometry

Neurolucida is advanced scientific software for brain mapping, neuron reconstruction, anatomical mapping, and morphometry. Since its debut more than 20 years ago, Neurolucida has continued to evolve and has become the worldwide gold-standard for neuron reconstruction and 3D mapping. Researchers have reconstructed tens of thousands of neurons using our technology.

The user-friendly interface gives you rapid results, allowing you to acquire data and capture the full 3D extent of neurons and brain regions. You can reconstruct neurons or create 3D serial reconstructions directly from slides or acquired images, and Neurolucida offers full microscope control for brightfield, fluorescent, and confocal microscopes.

Its added compatibility with 64-bit Microsoft Vista enables reconstructions with even larger images, image stacks, and virtual slides. Adding the Solid Modeling Module allows you to rotate and view your reconstructions in real time.

Neurolucida is available in two separate versions: Standard, which controls research microscope hardware and Workstation, for offline analysis away from the microscope. The software provides automatic analysis of hundreds of quantitative parameters, with results presented in graphical and spreadsheet format, all exportable to Microsoft Excel ®.

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AutoNeuron

Automated, fully-interactive neuron reconstruction

Available as a plug-in module for Neurolucida, AutoNeuron traces neurons from image stacks in minutes without pre-processing, thereby significantly reducing time and effort.

Our patented, innovative tracing algorithm quickly explores an entire 3D image volume in seconds and identifies neuronal processes and somas. AutoNeuron is also designed with the ability to trace neurons contained in adjacent image stacks.

The reconstructed neuron model can then be analyzed, viewed, and edited within Neurolucida, saving hours of manual tracing time.

The interactive mode provides instant feedback — you can view reconstructions on the fly and make any editing corrections immediately, whether you use brightfield or multi-channel confocal image stacks.

The technology that drives AutoNeuron is the result of more than a decade of published research on the automated tracing of branching structures in biological tissue.

Save time and get accurate results quickly with the world leader for automated neuron reconstruction.

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Densita

Analyze autoradiography and optical density

Densita manages your autoradiography study with the most efficient workflow available.

First-time users can be productive with our intuitive technology, which includes specific steps for acquiring images, calibrating, linking total- and non-specific binding images, outlining regions, and exporting results to Microsoft Excel ®.

Using an optical step wedge or radioactivity standards, Densita quickly and efficiently calculates ROD (relative optical density), luminance, concentration, the area of your region of interest, ligand concentration, and the amount of radioactivity.

Densita can acquire new images, load previously-saved images, or read your existing MCID files. It also includes the ability to montage, and it supports multi-channel fluorescence images.

Another feature that sets Densita apart is its ability to automatically recalculate your results any time you adjust the data, at any point in the workflow. There is no need to recapture the image or start over from the beginning. Simply make the change, and Densita will re-do the work for you.

See what our complete autoradiography system can do for your lab.

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Microlucida

For microscope control and image acquisition

Our newest product, Microlucida, builds on our core software framework of Neurolucida and Stereo Investigator, and provides all the tools necessary for advanced microscope control and image acquisition for brightfield, fluorescence, and confocal systems. It is the ideal application for research scientists who need to capture images in 2D, 3D, and 4D.

Microlucida gives you the power to acquire images from multiple fields of view and create seamless image montages, known as virtual slides. It also enables you to use a single high-quality image acquisition application across all of your microscopes, a feature particularly beneficial for core facilities.

Microlucida can save large amounts of disk space with its high-quality JPEG 2000 compression of images and stacks. Microlucida also enables time-lapse image acquisition over multiple channels.

With support for research microscopes from Zeiss, Olympus, Nikon, and Leica, Microlucida is also custom-designed for seamless integration with the world’s leading motorized stages and cameras.

Capture images easily with Microlucida.

NeuroInfo

System for high-resolution virtual slides

NeuroInfo is a large-scale image data server designed to provide digital microscopy over the internet and local area networks. The image montages are composed of hundreds to thousands of microscope images taken at high-magnification.

With the capacity to support images as large as 100 GB, it is ideal for researchers who need to examine and share tissue samples at multiple magnifications, away from the microscope. NeuroInfo’s advanced serving technology immediately renders any field of view at any magnification and delivers it to the desktop.

The atlasing capabilities built into NeuroInfo give you the power to define contours, markers, lines, and other graphical shapes visible at multiple resolution levels. You can easily annotate the image for collaboration, and create quick links to return to a precise image location and resolution.

NeuroInfo delivers fast, remote access to full-specimen images.

Virtual Slice Module

Create, view, and analyze an entire specimen
in a single high-resolution image

Using a motorized stage, the Virtual Slice module automatically creates a montage by collecting a series of contiguous images from a tissue specimen and aligns, stitches, and blends them together into a seamless montage. The resulting high-resolution image can be used for analysis, collaboration, and publication.

Virtual Slice stores image information in multi-level pyramidal format, with each resolution level representing a different level of magnification. This enables fast navigation to any region of the slide, at any level.

Virtual Slice is available as a plug-in module for Stereo Investigator, Neurolucida, and Microlucida. Now, Virtual Slice offers JPEG 2000 support, providing both high compression and superior image quality.

The Virtual Slice module can add significant capabilities to your system, opening the door to numerous new imaging possibilities.

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Solid Modeling Module

Bring the performance of a high-end graphic workstation into your lab

The Solid Modeling module, available as a plug-in module for Stereo Investigator and Neurolucida, gives you advanced 3D graphic and visualization capabilities.

Combining our software solution with the latest NVIDIA graphics cards, Solid Modeling enables real-time voxel rendering of image stacks, with reconstruction models superimposed over the image data. Serial section reconstructions can be rotated to any angle and resized to any magnification, revealing structural data that may have gone unnoticed before. Researchers can also use this module to visualize complex neuronal arbors in 3D.

The Solid Modeling module presents each reconstruction in a unique color, offers surface transparency to reveal inner structures, and enables manipulation of lighting conditions to further improve visualization. The images of the final 3D model can easily be exported in large-format for publication and poster printing.

Experience the advanced graphic representation & visualization of the Solid Modeling module.

MRI Module

Analyze MRI image sets and apply stereological techniques

Using the MRI module, you can perform detailed morphometric and stereological analyses on MRI image sets. Import individual ANALYZE and DICOM ® files or image sets comprised of TIFF, JPEG, or BMP files for analysis within Stereo Investigator and Neurolucida.

You can specify the exact focal distance between image planes, and the MRI module automatically keeps track of the Z-axis values. This enables you to easily apply stereological techniques or perform 3D reconstructions.

Image Stack Module

Capture and analyze 3D image stacks

The Image Stack module is optional for Stereo Investigator and Neurolucida. This module enables the loading and viewing of 3D image stacks acquired from within MBF software or imported from your existing microscope imaging system.

When used with the standard versions of our software, this module provides additional 3D imaging support for acquiring image stacks, performing offline stereology, reading confocal image files, 3D image rendering, automated neuron tracing, and automated cell detection.