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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We are pleased to announce that the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) has endorsed the MBF Bioscience neuromorphological file format as a standard. The file format is used in our products for neuroscience research for important applications such as digital neuron tracing, brain mapping and stereological analyses. MBF Bioscience products, including Neurolucida, Neurolucida 360, Stereo Investigator, Vesselucida 360, and NeuroInfo use this neuromorphological file format. This file...
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When we flex our thumb or point our finger, axons carry impulses from the brain to neurons in the spinal cord, which send messages to the muscles in our hands. In an important study in 1983, Jenny and Inukai at the Washington University School of Medicine reported the organizational patterns of those finger movement motoneuron columns in the primate spinal cord. Now, nearly 40 years...
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Obesity has reached epidemic levels worldwide. It is a major cause of deadly illnesses, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers, and has been linked to reduced quality of life and poor mental health outcomes. Efforts to combat this epidemic have so far failed to have an appreciable impact. Seeking novel targets with the potential to move the needle on obesity-linked cardiometabolic disorders, a research...
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Researchers studying structure and function in rat brain can now use NeuroInfo to analyze and register their brain volumes to the Waxholm Rat Brain Atlas Version 4—an open access volumetric atlas of the Sprague Dawley rat brain. “NeuroInfo already includes extensive analysis capabilities for mouse brain research by standardizing measurements on brain volumes to the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas. The inclusion of a rat atlas in...
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Our health depends on the ability of blood vessels to deliver nutrients and remove metabolic byproducts from organs and muscle systems. But what happens to this delicately balanced process after traumatic injury? Scientists generally understand that skeletal muscles can regenerate, but little is known about how this happens at the level of our microvasculature. [caption id="attachment_7659" align="aligncenter" width="699"] Representative maps of resistance networks from feed artery...
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Most neuroscientists are familiar with the saying “cells that fire together wire together,” which is often used to summarize the Hebbian theory of synaptic plasticity—first put forth in Donald Hebb’s book The Organization of Behavior in 1949. The theory describes how coincident activity between pre- and post-synaptic cells can shape synaptic strength. Verified decades later, the theory has since become accepted within the neuroscientific community. However,...
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