The democratization of neuroscience is a movement that aims to make neuroscience research more accessible and inclusive to everyone. This movement is based on the principles of open science and aims to make neuroscience research more transparent, collaborative, and accessible to researchers around the world. At MBF Bioscience, democratizing neuroscience has been part of our DNA since our founding 35 years ago when we launched Neurolucida....
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In their recent publication, Jeffrey Demas and co-authors introduced “Light Beads Microscopy”, an important technological breakthrough in 2 photon microscopy. The authors demonstrated how their innovative microscopy approach can be used to observe the activity of individual neurons in vivo in large volumes of mouse cortex, offering a long-sought approach to studying brain encoding. Light Beads Microscopy is a new method of two-photon microscopy optimized for...
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The question of whether an increased lifespan is associated with increased quality of life has been a topic of interest in the field of aging research. While there is evidence that improved somatic maintenance in model organisms can lead to increased longevity, recent studies have suggested that long-lived mutants may actually spend a higher percentage of their lives in an unhealthy state compared to non-mutants....
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ScanImage software from MBF Bioscience, along with the accompanying vDAQ acquisition and control card with analog to digital, digital to analog, breakout board, is built to control many combinations of hardware in order to carry out in-vivo imaging on a cellular scale. This makes it possible to observe the neural activities, such as those indicated by calcium concentration or voltage changes, of specific neuronal types...
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Using specimens that were collected over three decades from zoos, researchers at Humboldt University of Berlin examined facial motor control in African and Asian elephants. As described in their recent paper in Science Advances, they examined cell number, size, and position in the facial nucleus; conducted quantitative nerve tracing, and performed comparative analyses with other animals and between the two elephant types. The researchers found...
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As we begin each new year, it seems there is a wide open canvas stretched in front of us ready to hold our evolving ideas and new creations. What we accomplish in 2023 will be based on our prior years of work, knowledge and insights. All of us at MBF Bioscience, and I suspect many of you, reflect at this time of year revisit our...
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The Image Volume Fractionator probe, available in Stereo Investigator - Cleared Tissue Edition, is facilitating huge efficiency gains for quantifying the number of cells. At Dr. Patrick R. Hof’s lab at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, researchers imaged the cerebral cortex using light-sheet fluorescence microscopy and quantified the number of neurons, including those that express proteins involved in Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia, using...
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To help meet the broad range of imaging and quantitative image analysis needs of scientific researchers, MBF Bioscience has developed a number of comprehensive solutions based on our state-of-the-art technology and bundled them into a productivity suite of software for use as a shared resource in core imaging-facilities or large laboratories. The MBF Bioscience Core-Facility Suite includes our most popular image analysis tools installed on a...
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Humans and animal species can move in controlled motion sequences because of a delicate balance in the signaling of certain neurons in the area of the brain called the striatum. In this brain region, some neurons tell muscles to move, while others tell muscles to hold steady. In the brains of patients with Parkinson’s disease, more of the neurons that signal movement are activated resulting...
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After decades of identifying brain cells subjectively, researchers can now make use of a standardized classification system for identifying pyramidal cells—the most common type of cells in the neocortex. Scientists at the Blue Brain Project developed the system using mathematics that identify the properties of shapes that stay constant under continuous transformation. This new method of classification gives researchers the ability to begin building a...
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