Biolucida is interactive learning software developed in collaboration with leading medical educators. Biolucida simulates the experience of using a microscope that can focus through Z, and gives educators a vehicle to reach more students and deliver more dynamic and rich content. Hundreds of students can use Biolucida simultaneously, so you can use it even in your largest class.
Many medical educators use virtual slides (high-resolution digital images of tissue specimens) instead of microscopes to teach histology and histopathology. However, many different methods are used to acquire virtual slides, and distributing the slides to students for lectures, course work, and tests can be cumbersome and slow. Here are some unique ways that Biolucida goes above and beyond to create a learning environment where communication thrives.
Biolucida allows students and educators in the smallest or largest classes to collaborate and simultaneously access microscopy slides over the web. Educators can create reusable and sharable collections of annotated slides and control student access with Biolucida’s intuitive but powerful web interface. Content from existing educational content can be enhanced with these slides using simple web links.
Biolucida easily integrates with an institute's IT architecture using secure and current standard web technologies. Biolucida utilizes extensive client and server optimizations to ensure the fastest viewing experience even at peak internet usage times.
System Requirements for Biolucida Viewer |
|
Operating System |
|
RAM |
At least 6 GB |
System Requirements for Biolucida Server |
|
Operating System |
|
Processor |
minimum 4-cores for 2D whole slide images |
RAM |
minimum 8 GB with connectivity of 1 Gbps or great |
Biolucida exists as a standard, easily maintained WAMP/LAMP stack and proprietary C++ derived software.
Case Study
American Association of Anatomists Launches Virtual Microscopy Database powered by Biolucida
>> Learn More
Case Study
Medical Schools Take Learning Online with Biolucida During COVID-19
>> Learn More
Castro, A., Becerra, M., Jesús Manso, M., & Anadón, R. (2015). Neuronal organization of the brain in the adult amphioxus (Branchiostoma lanceolatum): A study with acetylated tubulin immunohistochemistry. Journal of Comparative Neurology, n/a-n/a. doi: 10.1002/cne.23785. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cne.23785
Chen, C.-C., Winkler, C. M., Pfenning, A. R., & Jarvis, E. D. (2013). Molecular profiling of the developing avian telencephalon: Regional timing and brain subdivision continuities. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 521(16), 3666-3701. doi: 10.1002/cne.23406. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cne.23406
Condro, M. C., Matynia, A., Foster, N. N., Ago, Y., Rajbhandari, A. K., Jayaram, B., . . . Waschek, J. A. (2016). High-resolution characterization of a PACAP-EGFP transgenic mouse model for mapping PACAP-expressing neurons. Journal of Comparative Neurology, n/a-n/a. doi: 10.1002/cne.24035. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cne.24035
Daniel, H., Ester, D., P., U. J. F., L., J. A., Timothy, S.-G., A., D. G., . . . Scott, K. J. (2018). A 3D MRI-based atlas of a lizard brain. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 0(ja). doi: doi:10.1002/cne.24480. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/cne.24480
Gerfen, Charles R., Paletzki, R., & Heintz, N. (2013). GENSAT BAC Cre-Recombinase Driver Lines to Study the Functional Organization of Cerebral Cortical and Basal Ganglia Circuits. Neuron, 80(6), 1368-1383. doi. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0896627313009197
Haeussner, E., Aschauer, B., Burton, G. J., Huppertz, B., Edler von Koch, F., Müller-Starck, J., . . . Frank, H.-G. (2015). Does 2D-Histologic identification of villous types of human placentas at birth enable sensitive and reliable interpretation of 3D structure? Placenta. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2015.10.003. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0143400415300631
Hannibal, J., Christiansen, A. T., Heegaard, S., Fahrenkrug, J., & Kiilgaard, J. F. (2017). Melanopsin expressing human retinal ganglion cells: Subtypes, distribution and intraretinal connectivity. Journal of Comparative Neurology, n/a-n/a. doi: 10.1002/cne.24181. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cne.24181
Hof, P. R. (2014). Passages 2014. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 522(1), 1-5. doi: 10.1002/cne.23474. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cne.23474
Hooks, B. M., Papale, A. E., Paletzki, R. F., Feroze, M. W., Eastwood, B. S., Couey, J. J., . . . Gerfen, C. R. (2018). Topographic precision in sensory and motor corticostriatal projections varies across cell type and cortical area. Nature Communications, 9(1), 3549. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-05780-7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05780-7
Iacono, D., Lee, P., Edlow, B. L., Gray, N., Fischl, B., Kenney, K., . . . Perl, D. P. (2019). Early-Onset Dementia in War Veterans: Brain Polypathology and Clinicopathologic Complexity. Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology. doi: 10.1093/jnen/nlz122. https://doi.org/10.1093/jnen/nlz122
Karten, H. J., Glaser, J. R., & Hof, P. R. (2013). An important landmark in scientific publishing. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 521(8), 1697-1698. doi: 10.1002/cne.23329. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cne.23329
Lipovich, L., Hou, Z.-c., Jia, H., Sinkler, C., McGowen, M., Sterner, K. N., . . . Wildman, D. E. (2015). High-throughput RNA sequencing reveals structural differences of orthologous brain-expressed genes between western lowland gorillas and humans. Journal of Comparative Neurology, n/a-n/a. doi: 10.1002/cne.23843. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cne.23843
O'Connor, N., Tappan, S., & Glaser, J. (2014). How to Prepare Neuroanatomical Image Data Current Protocols in Neuroscience (Vol. 69): John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Ogilvie, R., Sawyer, R., Greenwold, M., Bao, W., & Thompson, J. (2014). Evolution of a cross-institutional asynchronous online 500 level college histology course with interactive lectures and virtual lab component (530.1). The FASEB Journal, 28(1 Supplement). doi. http://www.fasebj.org/content/28/1_Supplement/530.1.abstract
Pastrana, E. (2014). A genetic handle on brain circuits. Nature Methods, 11, 128. doi. http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/v11/n2/full/nmeth.2829.html
Sakano, H., Zorio, D. A. R., Wang, X., Ting, Y. S., Noble, W. S., MacCoss, M. J., . . . Wang, Y. (2017). Proteomic analyses of nucleus laminaris identified candidate targets of the fragile X mental retardation protein. Journal of Comparative Neurology, n/a-n/a. doi: 10.1002/cne.24281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cne.24281
Samal, N., & Prakash, R. V. K. (2019). Randomized cross-over study and a qualitative analysis comparing virtual microscopy and light microscopy for learning undergraduate histopathology. Indian Journal of Pathology and Microbiology, 62(1), 84. doi.
Download Biolucida Medical Education product sheet here.
Biolucida® Version 5.0
New Features and Enhancements:
View Full Version History Here.
Biolucida is able to serve whole slide images for most commercially available scanners used for histology and histopathology imaging. Additionally, MBF Bioscience works with educators at installation time to optimize the system for the fastest remote slide viewing possible. Biolucida also supports 3D focusable virtual slides to ensure an experience that is truly like being at the microscope.
The Biolucida viewer is compatible with PCs and Macs, and the Biolucida web interface can be run in most web browsers. The Biolucida server can run in an institute’s IT architecture, or in an AWS environment provided and managed by MBF Bioscience.
Educators can use the simple drawing tools in Biolucida to precisely direct students to anatomic features of interest. Annotations can be shared across slide collections, and can be hidden during exams.
Biolucida integrates easily with other educational technologies (e.g., Blackboard, Canvas, etc.) using standard html links or by running a learning platform in Biolucida itself. The Biolucida viewer interface can include access to external web content such as exams and laboratory manuals.
The support engineers are at the ready to help educators and institutional IT engineers navigate educational content creation and integrating Biolucida into an established IT environment. Biolucida is built using the most current security and web technologies.
More than 150,000 students have used Biolucida for Medical Education to study histology and histopathology
Biolucida’s utility is underscored by the number of references it receives in the worlds most important scientific publications.
Hooks, B. M., Papale, A. E., Paletzki, R. F., Feroze, M. W., Eastwood, B. S., Couey, J. J., . . . Gerfen, C. R.
"Topographic precision in sensory and motor corticostriatal projections varies across cell type and cortical area"View Publication
Gerfen, Charles R., Paletzki, R., & Heintz, N.
"GENSAT BAC Cre-Recombinase Driver Lines to Study the Functional Organization of Cerebral Cortical and Basal Ganglia Circuits"View Publication
Daniel, H., Ester, D., P., U. J. F., L., J. A., Timothy, S.-G., A., D. G., . . . Scott, K. J.
"A 3D MRI-based atlas of a lizard brain"View Publication
Castro, A., Becerra, M., Jesús Manso, M., & Anadón, R.
"Neuronal organization of the brain in the adult amphioxus (Branchiostoma lanceolatum): A study with acetylated tubulin immunohistochemistry"View Publication
Chen, C.-C., Winkler, C. M., Pfenning, A. R., & Jarvis, E. D.
Molecular profiling of the developing avian telencephalon: Regional timing and brain subdivision continuitiesView Publication
Hannibal, J., Christiansen, A. T., Heegaard, S., Fahrenkrug, J., & Kiilgaard, J. F.
"Melanopsin expressing human retinal ganglion cells: Subtypes, distribution and intraretinal connectivity"View Publication
Sakano, H., Zorio, D. A. R., Wang, X., Ting, Y. S., Noble, W. S., MacCoss, M. J., . . . Wang, Y.
"Proteomic analyses of nucleus laminaris identified candidate targets of the fragile X mental retardation protein"View Publication
Condro, M. C., Matynia, A., Foster, N. N., Ago, Y., Rajbhandari, A. K., Jayaram, B., . . . Waschek, J. A.
"High-resolution characterization of a PACAP-EGFP transgenic mouse model for mapping PACAP-expressing neurons"View Publication
Karten, H. J., Glaser, J. R., & Hof, P. R.
"An important landmark in scientific publishing"View Publication
Biolucida consists of 3 parts: a server computer, Biolucida server software, and the Biolucida viewer. Together, the server computer and server software constitute a virtual central library where your slides are maintained and served. Biolucida can integrate into existing IT infrastructure, it can be set up in another location, or it can be hosted in the cloud with Amazon Web Services.
The Biolucida server software allows educators and students to navigate through large images quickly — there is no waiting for images to download. This
software runs behind the scenes and is not visible to users.
The viewer is the software application that instructors and students use to view, access, and share virtual slides. The viewer can run on any computer (PC or Mac) connected to the internet.
Biolucida efficiently serves very large virtual slides. A typical single image size is 10-50 gigabytes, but Biolucida can easily handle an image that exceeds of
terabytes.
The Biolucida viewer runs on Mac and PC, and the Biolucida server software runs on Windows and Linux. The Biolucida web browser viewer also allows viewing
slides on mobile platforms such as iPads.
Yes, Biolucida supports images acquired with slide scanners from companies such as Huron, Aperio, Leica, Olympus, Zeiss and Hamamatsu. It also supports
images and image stacks acquired with confocal microscopes from companies such as Zeiss, Olympus, and Leica.
Yes, Biolucida lets you easily compare multiple images simultaneously.
Yes, Biolucida supports 3D virtual slides and allows users to focus through image planes just like a microscope.
"It was so helpful to have Biolucida already in place with the pandemic and move to online instruction. Everything worked so smoothly!"
Dr. Sarah Werning
"Biolucida is an amazing platform for using virtual histology in medical education that I have been using to aid my teaching practices for years. The medical students have also shown great interest in your virtual slides and that has helped them achieve better results - findings that I have also published."
Marko Kostovski, PhD
"I rarely have encountered a company so committed to support and troubleshooting as MBF."
Andrew Hardaway, Ph.D.
"MBF Bioscience is extremely responsive to the needs of scientists and is genuinely interested in helping all of us in science do the best job we can."
Sigrid C. Veasey, MD
"I am so happy to be a customer of your company. I always get great help related with your product or not. With the experienced members, you are the best team I've ever met. All of your staff are very kind and helpful. Thank you for your great help and support all the time."
Mazhar Özkan
"We’ve been very happy for many years with MBF products and the course of upgrades and improvements. Your service department is outstanding. I have gotten great help from the staff with the software and hardware."
William E. Armstrong, Ph.D.
"Our experience with the MBF equipment and especially the MBF people has been outstanding. I cannot speak any higher about their professionalism and attention for our needs."
Bogdan A. Stoica, MD
"MBF provides excellent technical support and helps you to find the best technical tools for your research challenges on morphometry."
Wilma Van De Berg, Ph.D.
Our service sets us apart, with a team that includes Ph.D. neuroscientists, experts in microscopy, stereology, neuron reconstruction, and image processing. We’ve also developed a host of additional support services, including:
We offer a free expert demonstration of Biolucida. During your demonstration you’ll also have the opportunity to talk to us about your hardware, software, or experimental design questions with our team of Ph.D. neuroscientists and experts in microscopy, neuron tracing, and image processing.
Neuron tracing & analysis directly at the microscope. The gold standard for neuron tracing.
The complete stereology solution. The gold standard for unbiased cell counting.