Welcome to the Amira-Avizo Software Use Case Gallery

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

While fluorescence microscopy provides tools for highly specific labeling and sensitive detection, its resolution limit and lack of general contrast has hindered studies of cellular structure and protein localization. Recent advances in correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM), including the fully integrated CLEM workflow instrument, the Thermo Scientific CorrSight with MAPS, have allowed for a more reliable, reproducible, and quicker approach to correlate three-dimensional time-lapse... Read more

During the last decades, X-ray (micro-)computed tomography has gained increasing attention for the description of porous skeletal and shell structures of various organism groups. However, their quantitative analysis is often hampered by the difficulty to discriminate cavities and pores within the object from the surrounding region. Herein, we test the ambient occlusion (AO) algorithm and newly implemented optimisations for the segmentation of cavities (implemented in the software Amira). (... Read more

Platelets, cells central to hemostasis and thrombosis, are formed from parent cell megakaryocytes. Although the process is highly efficient in vivo, our ability to generate them in vitro is still remarkably inefficient. We proposed that greater understanding of the process in vivo is needed and used an imaging approach, intravital correlative light electron microscopy, to visualize platelet generation in bone marrow in the living mouse. In contrast to current understanding, we found that most... Read more

The matrix protein M1 of the Influenza A virus is considered to mediate viral assembly and budding at the plasma membrane (PM) of infected cells. In order for a new viral particle to form, the PM lipid bilayer has to bend into a vesicle towards the extracellular side. Studies in cellular models have proposed that different viral proteins might be responsible for inducing membrane curvature in this context (including M1), but a clear consensus has not been reached. In this study, we use a comb... Read more

During mitosis, the centrosome expands its capacity to nucleate microtubules. Understanding the mechanisms of centrosomal microtubule nucleation is, however, constrained by a lack of knowledge of the amount of soluble and polymer tubulin at mitotic centrosomes. Here we combined light microscopy and serial-section electron tomography to measure the amount of dimer and polymer at mitotic centrosomes in early C. elegans embryos. We show that a C. elegans one-cell stage centrosome at metaphase co... Read more

Evidence for macroscopic life in the Paleoproterozoic Era comes from 1.8 billion-year-old (Ga) compression fossils [Han TM, Runnegar B (1992) Science 257:232–235; Knoll et al. (2006) Philos Trans R Soc Lond B 361:1023–1038],  Stirling biota [Bengtson S et al. (2007) Paleobiology 33:351–381], and large colonial organisms exhibiting signs of coordinated growth from the 2.1-Ga Francevillian series, Gabon. Here we report on pyritized string-shaped structures from... Read more

X-ray Computed Tomography (X-ray CT) has become a vital tool for product quality inspection. The X-ray CT analysis of 3D printed composites, with a layer-by-layer structure of carbon fibre/polyamide and polyamide plies, demonstrates how the void content increases with an increasing number of consecutive carbon fibre layers. Not only the void content, but also the pore
network complexity increases, as more pore types are introduced into the sample. The PolyAmide (PA) matrix has an averag... Read more

It is well known that the phonatory process changes during the life span. However, detailed investigations on potential factors concerned are rare. To deal with this issue, we performed extended biomechanical, macro anatomical, and histological analyses of the contributing laryngeal structures in ex vivo juvenile sheep models. Altogether twelve juvenile sheep larynges were analyzed within the phonatory experiments. Three different elongation levels and 16 different flow levels were applied to... Read more

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

Electron Beam Melting (EBM) is an Additive Manufacturing (AM) process which can be used to fabricate complex 3D metal components. Ti-6Al-4V is one of the high value aerospace materials that has been widely used in the EBM process. However, defects such as gas pores and lack of fusion are often found in the as-built components, which can make a significant difference to the fatigue resistance of the parts. The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) uses X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) and 3D im... Read more

At GEVES, Microtomography (micro-CT), which is a technique using X-rays to investigate internal anatomy and morphology of organisms without destruction, is applied to plant seed quality control and phenotyping. Several applications have been developed using micro-CT coupled with Avizo software development, such as for example in the Measurements of internal and external sugar beet seed structures for seed phenotyping

Computed tomography is an increasingly popular technique for the non-destructive study of fossils. Whilst the science of X-ray computed tomography (CT) has greatly matured since its first fossil applications in the early 1980s, the applications and limitations of neutron tomography (NT) remain relatively unexplored in palaeontology. These highest resolution neutron tomographic scans in palaeontology to date were conducted on a specimen of Austrosequoia novae-zeelandiae (Ettingshausen) Mays an... Read more

The appearance of wings in insects, early in their evolution [1], has been one of the more critical innovations contributing to their extraordinary diversity. Despite the conspicuousness and importance of wings, the origin of these structures has been difficult to resolve and represented one of the “abominable mysteries” in evolutionary biology [2]. More than a century of debate has boiled the matter down to two competing alternatives—one of wings representing an extension of the thorac... Read more

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.

The Paleoproterozoic Era witnessed crucial steps in the evolution of Earth’s surface environments following the first appreciable rise of free atmospheric oxygen concentrations ∼2.3 to 2.1 Ga ago, and concomitant shallow ocean oxygenation. Combined microtomography, geochemistry, and sedimentary analysis suggest a biota fossilized during early diagenesis. The emergence of this biota follows a rise in atmospheric oxygen, which is consistent with the idea that surface oxygenation allowe... Read more

Endosseous oral implant is applied for orthodontic anchorage in subjects with multiple tooth agenesis. Its effectiveness under orthodontic loading has been demonstrated clinically and experimentally. This study investigates the deformation and stress on the bone and implant for different bite forces by three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) methods. A numerical simulation of deformation and stress distributions around implants was used to estimate the survival life for implants. The model... Read more

This paper used the X-ray three-dimensional (3D) microscope and acquired, through CT scanning, the 3D data of the long-frame coal sample from the Daliuta Coal Mine.

Then, the 3D datacube reconstructed from the coal’s CT scanning data was visualized with the use of Avizo, an advanced visualization software. By means of a gray-scale segmentation technique, the model of the coal’s micro-pore structure was extracted from the object region, and the precise characterization was then cond... Read more

Aetosauria is a clade of heavily armored, quadrupedal omnivorous to herbivorous archosaurs known from the Late Triassic across what was the supercontinent of Pangea. Their abundance in many deposits relative to the paucity of other Triassic herbivores indicates that they were key components of Late Triassic ecosystems. However, their evolutionary relationships remain contentious due, in large part, to their extensive dermal armor, which often obstructs observation of internal skeletal anatomy... Read more

The tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1) exerts inhibitory activity against matrix metalloproteinases and cytokine-like effects. We previously showed that TIMP-1 reduces neurite outgrowth in mouse cortical neurons and that this cytokine-like effect depends on TIMP-1 endocytosis mediated by the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein-1 (LRP-1). To gain insight into the interaction between TIMP-1 and LRP-1, we considered conformational changes that occur when a ligand bind... Read more

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