Welcome to the Amira-Avizo Software Use Case Gallery
Below you will find a collection of use cases of our 3D data visualization and analysis software. These use cases include scientific publications, articles, papers, posters, presentations or even videos that show how Amira-Avizo Software is used to address various scientific and industrial research topics.
Use the Domain selector to filter by main application area, and use the Search box to enter keywords related to specific topics you are interested in.
In biomedical research, a huge variety of different techniques is currently available for the structural examination of small specimens, including conventional light microscopy (LM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), microscopic X-ray computed tomography (microCT), and many others. Since every imaging method is physically limited by certain parameters, a correlative use of complementary methods often yields a significant broader range of inform... Read more
Stephan Handschuh, Natalie Baeumler, Thomas Schwaha and Bernhard Ruthensteiner
Correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) is a powerful approach to investigate the molecular ultrastructure of labeled cell compartments. However, quantitative CLEM studies are rare, mainly due to small sample sizes and the sensitivity of fluorescent proteins to strong fixatives and contrasting reagents for EM. Here, we show that fusion of…
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Andreas Müller, Martin Neukam, Anna Ivanova, Anke Sönmez, Carla Münster, Susanne Kretschmar, Yannis Kalaidzidis, Thomas Kurth, Jean-Marc Verbavatz & Michele Solimena
Correlative cryo-electron microscopy reveals the structure of TNTs in neuronal cells
The orchestration of intercellular communication is essential for multicellular organisms. One mechanism by which cells communicate is through long, actin-rich membranous protrusions called tunneling nanotubes (TNTs), which allow the intercellular transport of various cargoes, between the cytoplasm of distant cells in vitro and in vivo. Here, we use correlative FIB-SEM, light- and cryo-electron microscopy approaches to elucidate the structural organization of neuronal TNTs. Our data indicate ... Read more
Anna Sartori-Rupp, Diégo Cordero Cervantes, Anna Pepe, Karine Gousset, Elise Delage, Simon Corroyer-Dulmont, Christine Schmitt, Jacomina Krijnse-Locker & Chiara Zurzolo
During the acts of biting and chewing, the muscles of the jaw (consisting of the masseter, temporalis, and medial pterygoid in the elevator group, and lateral pterygoid as the main depressor) generate forces that dictate jaw kinematics . The movement of jaws hinges about the temporomandibular joint and are brought together by the muscles attached to respective bones through bone-tendon interfaces known as entheses . Thus, chewing forces affect aspects of craniofacial structure as well as bo... Read more
Kyle H.-Y. Chan, fourth-year undergraduate student in Molecular and Cell Biology, and Public Health at UC Berkeley, FeiFei Yang, Ph.D., postdoctoral scholar in the Laboratory of Multiscale Biomechanics and Biomineralization, School of Dentistry, UCSF, and Sunita P. Ho, Ph.D., Division of Biomaterials and Bioengineering, Department of Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences, School of Dentistry, University of California San Francisco
A virtual world of paleontology
Computer-aided visualization and analysis has revolutionized the study of fossils. Fossils can now be characterized in three dimensions and in unprecedented detail. The resulting digital reconstructions can be used in rigorous functional analyses. Hypotheses regarding the function of extinct organisms can therefore be tested.
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Trends in Ecology & Evolution
Immunofluorescence tomography is a high-resolution 3-D reconstruction method based on methacrylate embedding and serial-sectioning, where 2-D images of immuno-stained serial-sections are computationally aligned into image stacks, and the 3-D volume rendered. Butyl-Methyl Methacrylate (BMMA) plastic was adopted as it preserves excellent tissue morphology and can be de-plasticized easily using an organic solvent, which enables immuno-staining of serial-sections without antibody penetration issu... Read more
Parfitt, Geraint J
External and internal morphological characters of extant and fossil organisms are crucial to establishing their systematic position, ecological role and evolutionary trends. (…) We found well-preserved three-dimensional anatomy in mineralized arthropods from Paleogene fissure fillings and demonstrate the value of these fossils by utilizing digitally reconstructed anatomical structure of a hister beetle. The new anatomical data facilitate a refinement of the species diagnosis and allowed... Read more
Achim H Schwermann, Tomy dos Santos Rolo, Michael S Caterino, Gunter Bechly, Heiko Schmied, Tilo Baumbach, Thomas van de Kamp
Open-cell foams as structured catalyst supports are promising candidates for the design of high throughput catalytic processes. In this contribution, we employ a coupled numerical and experimental approach to assess the pressure losses in foams. (…) we explore virtually-generated foam models and their 3D printed replicas for a combined CFD and experimental study of fluid dynamics in foams. In particular, we focus our analysis on the low Reynolds number regime, where deviations between t... Read more
Mauro Bracconi, Matteo Ambrosetti, Obinna Okafor, Victor Sans, Xun Zhang, Xiaoxia Ou, Claudio Pereira Da Fonte, Xiaolei Fan, Matteo Maestri, Gianpiero Groppi, Enrico Tronconi
Vascular structure of the earliest shark teeth
Here we use synchrotron tomography to characterise dental vasculature in the oldest known tooth-bearing sharks, Leonodus carlsi Mader, 1986 and Celtiberina maderi Wang, 1993. Three dimensional reconstruction of the vascular system and microstructure of both taxa revealed a complex and dense network of canals, including horizontal, ascending and secondary bifurcated canals, as well as histological features consistent with an osteodont histotype. However, L. carlsi and C. maderi also exhibit si... Read more
Carlos Martinez-Perez, Alba Martin-Lazaro, Humberto G Ferron, Martina Kirstein, Philip C.J. Donoghue, Hector Botella
Endothelial cells and pericytes are integral cellular components of the vasculature with distinct interactive functionalities. To study dynamic interactions between these two cells we created two transgenic animal lines. A truncated eNOS (endothelial nitric oxide synthase) construct was used as a GFP tag for endothelial cell evaluation and an inducible Cre-lox recombination, under control of the Pdgfrb (platelet derived growth factor receptor beta) promoter, was created for pericyte assessmen... Read more
Ann L. B. Seynhaeve, Douwe Oostinga, Rien van Haperen, Hanna M. Eilken, Susanne Adams, Ralf H. Adams & Timo L. M. ten Hagen
STIM1 promotes migration, phagosomal maturation and antigen cross-presentation in dendritic cells
Antigen cross-presentation by dendritic cells (DC) stimulates cytotoxic T cell activation to promote immunity to intracellular pathogens, viruses and cancer. Phagocytosed antigens generate potent T cell responses, but the signalling and trafficking pathways regulating their cross-presentation are unclear. Here, we show that ablation of the store-operated-Ca2+-entry regulator STIM1 in mouse myeloid cells impairs cross-presentation and DC migration in vivo and in vitro. Stim1... Read more
Paula Nunes-Hasler, Sophia Maschalidi, Carla Lippens, Cyril Castelbou, Samuel Bouvet, Daniele Guido, Flavien Bermont, Esen Y. Bassoy, Nicolas Page, Doron Merkler, Stéphanie Hugues, Denis Martinvalet, Bénédicte Manoury & Nicolas Demaurex
Ptychographic X-ray computed tomography (PXCT) is a quantitative imaging modality that non-destructively maps the 3D electron density inside an object with tens of nanometers spatial resolution. This method provides unique access to the morphology and structure of the osteocyte lacuno-canalicular network (LCN) and nanoscale density of the tissue in the vicinity of an osteocyte lacuna. Our findings indicate that PXCT can non-destructively provide detailed, nanoscale information on the 3D org... Read more
Antonia Ciani, Hechmi Toumi, Stéphane Pallu, Esther H.R.Tsai, Ana Diaz, Manuel Guizar-Sicairos, Mirko Holler, Eric Lespessailles, Cameron M.Kewish | Synchrotron Soleil, France
Combined expansion and lattice light sheet microscopy enables high
speed, nanoscale molecular imaging of neural circuits over large volumes.
Optical and electron microscopy have made tremendous inroads in understanding the complexity of the brain, but the former offers insufficient resolution to reveal subcellular details and the latter lacks the throughput and molecular contrast to visualize specific molecular constituents over mm-scale or larger dimensions. We combined expansio... Read more
Ruixuan Gao, Shoh M Asano, Srigokul Upadhyayula, Igor Pisarev, Daniel E Milkie, Tsung-Li Liu, Ved Singh, Austin Graves, Grace H Huynh, Yongxin Zhao, John Bogovic, Jennifer Colonell, Carolyn M Ott, Christopher Zugates, Susan Tappan, Alfredo Rodriguez, Kishore R Mosaliganti, Sean G Megason, Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, Adam Hantman, Gerald M Rubin, Tom Kirchhausen, Stephan Saalfeld, Yoshinori Aso, Edward S Boyden, Eric Betzig
Cyclostome bryozoans are an ancient group of marine colonial suspension-feeders comprising approximately 700 extant species. Previous morphological studies are mainly restricted to skeletal characters whereas data on soft tissues obtained by state-of-the-art methods are still lacking. In order to contribute to issues related to cyclostome ground pattern reconstruction, we analyzed the morphology of the neuromuscular system Cinctipora elegans by means of immunocytochemical staining,... Read more
Thomas F. Schwaha, Stephan Handschuh, Andrew N. Ostrovsky, Andreas Wanninger
Three-dimensional virtual histology of human cerebellum by X-ray phase-contrast tomography
To quantitatively evaluate brain tissue and its corresponding function, knowledge of the 3D cellular distribution is essential. The gold standard to obtain this information is histology, a destructive and labor-intensive technique where the specimen is sliced and examined under a light microscope, providing 3D information at nonisotropic resolution. To overcome the limitations of conventional histology, we use phase-contrast X-ray tomography with optimized optics, reconstruction, and image an... Read more
Mareike Töpperwien, Franziska van der Meer, Christine Stadelmann, and Tim Salditt
3D Reconstruction of Lipid Droplets in the Seed of Brassica napus
Rapeseed is one of the most important and widely cultured oilseed crops for food and nonfood purposes worldwide. Neutral lipids are stored in lipid droplets (LDs) as fuel for germination and subsequent seedling growth. Most of the LD detection in seeds was still in 2D levels, and some of the details might have been lost in previous studies. In the present work, the configuration of LDs in seeds was obtained by confocal imaging combined with 3D reconstruction technology in Brassica napus<... Read more
Yongtai Yin, Liangxing Guo, Kang Chen, Zhenyi Guo, Hongbo Chao, Baoshan Wang, and Maoteng Licorresponding author
Stochastic reconstruction of carbon fiber paper gas diffusion layers of PEFCs: A comparative study
Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that convert the chemical energy of fuels into electrical energy. An ideal option for a wide variety of portable, stationary, and automotive applications is using the polymer electrolyte
fuel cells due to their modular design, high efficiency, and environmental benefits.
A 3D microstructure of the non-woven gas diffusion layers (GDLs) of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) is reconstructed using a stochastic method. For a commercial GDL, ... Read more
Sepehr Sima Afrookhteh, Jalil Jamali, Mohsen Shakeric, Majid Baniassadi
Mass transport can significantly limit the rate of reaction and lead to concentration polarization in electrochemical devices, especially under the conditions of high operating current density.
In this study we investigate hierarchically structured micro-tubular solid
oxide fuel cells (MT-SOFC) fabricated by phase inversion technique and quantitatively assess the mass transport and electrochemical performance improvement compared to a conventional tubular SOFC. We present pioneer... Read more
Xuekun Lu, Tao Li, Antonio Bertei, Jason I S Cho , Thomas M.M. Heenan , Rabuni Mohamad, Kang Li, Dan JL Brett, Paul R Shearing
Correlation between triple phase boundary and the microstructure of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell anodes
This study aims to correlate the active triple phase boundaries (TPBs) to the variation of as-prepared anode microstructures and Ni densifications based on the reconstructed 3D volume of an SOFC anode, providing a point of comparison with theoretical studies that reveal the relationship of TPBs and the material microstructure using randomly packed spheres models.
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Xuekun Lu, Thomas M.M. Heenan, Josh J. Bailey, Tao Li, Kang Li, Daniel J.L. Brett, Paul R. Shearing, Electrochemical Innovation Lab, Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London, London
Nickel/zirconia-based nanostructured electrodes for solid oxide fuel cells suffer from poor stability even at intermediate temperature.
This study quantifies the electrochemical and microstructural degradation of nanostructured electrodes by combining 3D tomography, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and mechanistic modeling. For the first time, the electrochemical degradation of nanostructured electrodes is quantified according to the fractal nature of the three-phase bounda... Read more
A. Bertei, E. Ruiz-Trejo, K. Kareh, V. Yufit, X. Wang, F. Tariq, N.P. Brandon,
A simple chemical bath deposition is used to coat a complex porous ceramic scaffold with a conformal Ni layer.
The resulting composite is used as a solid oxide fuel cell electrode, and its electrochemical response is measured in humidified hydrogen. X‐ray tomography is used to determine the microstructural characteristics of the uncoated and Ni‐coated porous structure, which include the surface area to total volume, the radial pore size, and the size of the necks between the pores.... Read more
Dr. Enrique Ruiz‐Trejo, Milla Puolamaa, Brian Sum, Dr. Farid Tariq, Dr. Vladimir Yufit, Prof. Nigel P. Brandon