Williston, VT — October 6, 2020 — Big science produces big data. At laboratories around the world, researchers from every scientific discipline face a similar problem — how to manage the massive image files generated by large-scale experimental imaging workflows.

MBF Bioscience has solved this problem by leveraging our scientific imaging expertise to produce MicroFile+, a freely available software tool for the scientific community. MicroFile+ converts 2D and 3D images into compact files that are easy to store and share, so that your image data can be viewed and organized in an efficient, standardized manner.

MicroFile+ uses state-of-the-art compression technology to convert images from slide scanners, confocal microscopes, light sheet microscopes, and other microscope sources into a jpeg2000 file format — a web-friendly format that efficiently stores big image data for fast retrieval, viewing, and analysis. Images can also be converted to the OME tiff format, which is widely used in research microscopy.

MicroFile+ has the ability to:

• Convert nearly any type of image to the jpeg2000 standard or to the OME tiff format.
• Compile individual images, such as serial sections or cleared tissue, into 3D volumes.
• Handle complex data formats generated by light sheet and fast scanning imaging platforms.
• Produce standard data visualizations from big image data sets including deep focus, and maximum and minimum intensity projections.
• Accommodate multi-terabyte 3D images from light sheet microscopes.
• Ensure that metadata and imaging parameters are maintained as datasets are organized, analyzed, and shared.
• Process images in batches, for workflow efficiency by cueing many datasets for unattended conversion.

If you have any questions about how MicroFile+ can help with your big data needs, don’t hesitate to contact us: https://www.mbfbioscience.com/microfileplus

About MBF Bioscience: MBF Bioscience creates quantitative imaging and visualization software for stereology, neuron reconstruction, vascular analysis, c. elegans behavior analysis and medical education, integrated with the world’s leading microscope systems, to empower research.

Our development team and staff scientists are actively engaged with leading bioscience researchers, constantly working to refine our products based on state-of-the-art scientific advances in the field.

Founded as MicroBrightField, Inc. in 1988, we changed our name to MBF Bioscience in 2005 to reflect the expansion of our products and services to new microscopy techniques in all fields of biological research and education. While we continue to specialize in neuroscience research, our products are also used extensively in the research fields of stem cells, lung, kidney, cardiac, cancer, and toxicology.

MBF Bioscience has grown into a global business, with offices in North America, Europe, Japan, and South Korea, and a dealer network active on five continents. Our commitment to innovative products and unrivaled customer support has gained high praise from distinguished scientists who use our products all over the world. Our flagship products Stereo Investigator and Neurolucida are the most widely-used analysis systems for stereology and neuron reconstruction.

For more information visit www.mbfbioscience.com or follow MBF Bioscience on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and track our Neuroart.com contest on Instagram.

Media Contact:
Pasang Sherpa
Marketing Manager
1-802-288-9290/ pasang@mbfbioscience.com

The post MicroFile+ Free Software for Converting Big Scientific Images into Manageable, Shareable, Standardized Files appeared first on MBF Bioscience.

Williston, VT (September 25, 2020)—To support the scientific community’s movement toward a more open and collaborative climate, MBF Bioscience is making their digital reconstruction file format, the Neuromorpholocial File Specification open and available to all researchers.

MBF Bioscience has a long history of supporting openness and collaboration in neuroscience research. MBF Bioscience’s file format has evolved for over 30 years, influenced by leading neuroscientists, new microscopic imaging technologies, and computational advances. During this progression, MBF Bioscience has continually augmented morphological modeling elements for performance, modeling accuracy, and analytical potential. Encoded in the well-recognized and readable XML format, modeling parameters specify microscopic neuroanatomies in a calibrated 3D coordinate system with appropriate units. The XML files can easily be viewed and parsed in a variety of software platforms (e.g., MATLAB, Python, R, etc.).

President and co-founder of MBF Bioscience, Jack Glaser says, “We hope this publication encourages the reuse of these rich data files for alternative analysis or reproduction of derived conclusions. This open specification encourages and enables the reuse of unique and important experimental data collected by users of our software.”

MBF Bioscience has also implemented development and design methodologies to ensure that our Neuromorpholocial File Specification complies with Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data standards. Abiding by FAIR data standards ensures the accessibility of original experimental data and its provenance, and facilitates inspecting, reproducing, and extending research.

Publishing this open and FAIR Neuromorpholocial File Specification data file specification benefits research in neuroscience, and in fields beyond, by increasing accessibility and sustainability of anatomical and morphological data. MBF Bioscience has submitted a publication, A comprehensive, FAIR file format for neuroanatomical structure modeling, to Neuroinformatics Special Issue: Building the NeuroCommons. It describes key elements of the file format, and details their relevant structural advantages. If you are interested in learning more, this paper is now publicly available on Biorxiv.

MBF Bioscience also recognizes the importance of community contributions, and a plan is in place to create an open community strategy through emails and existing discussion forums.

You can find the neuromorphological file format specification at www.mbfbioscience.com/filespecification. MBF Bioscience will continue to update and document the file specification to accommodate added or modified data elements.

In this webinar, MBF Bioscience demonstrates how to use MicroFile+ to convert microscopy image data from various proprietary file formats into the standardized OME-TIFF and JPEG2000 formats.

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About MBF Bioscience: MBF Bioscience integrates the world’s leading microscope systems with our revolutionary quantitative imaging and visualization software to accelerate research in the fields of: stereology, neuron and microvasculature reconstruction, vascular analysis, worm tracking, brain mapping and big image data management in medical research and education.

Since 1988, MBF Bioscience has forged a rich history of creating innovative products to empower biological researchers with the quantitative analysis tools they need to obtain accurate, unbiased results. With offices in North America, Europe, Japan, and South Korea, MBF Bioscience has helped researchers across the globe publish over 15,000 peer-reviewed papers in peer-reviewed journals. MBF Bioscience partners with the NIH and distinguished scientists across the world to continue their commitment to neuroscience research with their software technology, and also in the fields of stem cells, pulmonology, oncology, and toxicology. For more information visit www.mbfbioscience.com or follow MBF Bioscience on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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Media Contact:
Pasang Sherpa
Marketing Manager
1-802-288-9290/ pasang@mbfbioscience.com

The post MBF Bioscience Releases our File Format to Embrace FAIR Data Standards appeared first on MBF Bioscience.