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.

Understanding the uptake of a drug by diseased tissue, and the drug’s subsequent spatiotemporal distribution, are central factors in the development of effective targeted therapies. However, the interaction between the pathophysiology of diseased tissue and individual therapeutic agents can be complex, and can vary across tissue types and across subjects. Here, we show that the combination of mathematical modelling, high-resolution optical imaging of intact and optically cleared tumour tiss... Read more
Angela d’Esposito, Paul W. Sweeney, Morium Ali, Magdy Saleh, Rajiv Ramasawmy, Thomas A. Roberts, Giulia Agliardi, Adrien Desjardins, Mark F. Lythgoe, R. Barbara Pedley, Rebecca Shipley and Simon Walker-Samuel

Investigation of Hot Pressed Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Assemblies via X-ray Computed Tomography
The hot pressing process for fabricating membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) has been widely adopted, yet little is known of its effects on the microstructural properties of the different components of the MEA. In particular, the interaction of the electrolyte, electrode and gas diffusion layer (GDL) due to lamination is difficult to probe as conventional imaging techniques cannot access the internal structure of the MEA. Here, a novel approach is used, which combines characterisation of hot... Read more
Q. Meyer, N. Mansor, F. Iacoviello, P.L. Cullen, R. Jervis, D. Finegan, C. Tan, J. Bailey, P. R. Shearing, D. J. L. Brett

Revealing the mechanisms by which magneto-hydrodynamics disrupts solidification microstructures
A key technique for controlling solidification microstructures is magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD), resulting from imposing a magnetic field to solidifying metals and alloys. Applications range from bulk stirring to flow control and turbulence damping via the induced Lorentz force. Over the past two decades the Lorentz force caused by the interaction of thermoelectric currents and a magnetic field, a MHD phenomenon known as Thermoelectric Magnetohydrodynamics (TEMHD), was also shown to drive inter... Read more
B. Cai, A. Kao, E. Boller, O.V. Magdysyuk, R.C. Atwood, N.T. Vo, K. Pericleous, P.D. Lee

Metal-Organic Framework Crystal-Glass Composites
The majority of research into metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) focuses on their crystalline nature. However, in recent research the vitrification of a number of MOFs has been revealed. We propose that the solid-liquid phase transitions involved in MOF-glass formation can provide unique opportunities for the creation of a new class of functional, stable and porous composite materials. Described herein is the design, synthesis, and characterisation of novel metal-organic framework (MOF) crystal-... Read more
Jingwei Hou, Christopher W. Ashling, Sean M. Collins, Andraž Krajnc, Chao Zhou, Louis Longley, Duncan N. Johnstone, Philip A. Chater, Shichun Li, François-Xavier Coudert, David A. Keen, Paul A. Midgley, Gregor Mali, Vicki Chen, Thomas Bennett

Synergistic role of nucleotides and lipids for the self-assembly of Shs1 septin oligomers
Amira capacities for membranes and filaments segmentation in cryo-TEM images are featured on the front cover of Biochemical Journal, July 2020.
Budding yeast septins are essential for cell division and polarity. (…) [The authors] have dissected, here, for the first time, the behavior of the Shs1 protomer bound to membranes at nanometer resolution, in complex with the other septins. Using electron microscopy, [the authors] have shown that on membranes, Shs1 protomers self-assembl... Read more
Cyntia Taveneau, Rémi Blanc, Gerard Pehau-Arnaudet, Aurélie Cicco, Aurélie Bertin

The molecular basis for sarcomere organization in vertebrate skeletal muscle
Sarcomeres are force-generating and load-bearing devices of muscles. A precise molecular picture of how sarcomeres are built underpins understanding their role in health and disease. Here, we determine the molecular architecture of native vertebrate skeletal sarcomeres by electron cryo-tomography.
Our reconstruction reveals molecular details of the three-dimensional organization and interaction of actin and myosin in the A-band, I-band, and Z-disc and demonstrates that α-actinin cros... Read more
Zhexin Wang, Michael Grange, Thorsten Wagner, Ay Lin Kho, Mathias Gautel, Stefan Raunser

Automatic whole cell organelle segmentation in volumetric electron microscopy
Cells contain hundreds of different organelle and macromolecular assemblies intricately organized relative to each other to meet any cellular demands. Obtaining a complete understanding of their organization is challenging and requires nanometer-level, three-dimensional reconstruction of whole cells. Even then, the immense size of datasets and large number of structures to be characterized requires generalizable, automatic methods.
To meet this challenge, we developed an analy... Read more
Larissa Heinrich, Davis Bennett, David Ackerman, Woohyun Park, John Bogovic, View ORCID ProfileNils Eckstein, Alyson Petruncio, Jody Clements, C. Shan Xu, Jan Funke, Wyatt Korff, Harald F. Hess, Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, Stephan Saalfeld, Aubrey V. Weigel, COSEM Project Team

Impact of physical confinement on nuclei geometry and cell division dynamics in 3D spheroids
Multicellular tumour spheroids are used as a culture model to reproduce the 3D architecture, proliferation gradient and cell interactions of a tumour micro-domain. However, their 3D characterization at the cell scale remains challenging due to size and cell density issues. In this study, we developed a methodology based on 3D light sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) image analysis and convex hull calculation that allows characterizing the 3D shape and orientation of cell nuclei relative to ... Read more
Annaïck Desmaison, Ludivine Guillaume, Sarah Triclin, Pierre Weiss, Bernard Ducommun & Valérie Lobjois

Influenza A matrix protein M1 is sufficient to induce lipid membrane deformation
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
Ismail Dahmani, Kai Ludwig, Salvatore Chiantia

3D Dissection of Structural Membrane-Wall Contacts in Filamentous Moss Protonemata
Cell-to-cell contact is essential for communication and development of multicellular organisms. A prerequisite is the passage through membranes. That way, molecular exchange and information flow is regulated via hormones, membrane proteins and pores.
In plants, the rigid cell walls prevent large membrane contact areas between protoplasts. Only plasmodesmata, minute channels between adjacent cells, form direct connections. Often, molecular data of the proteins involved are manifold but t... Read more
Dominik Harant and Ingeborg Lang

High market demands related to material quality and properties strongly influence redesigning of common safety loaded aluminum alloy castings. The quality of aluminum components and associated obtained mechanical properties are strongly dependent on the casting process and parameters, as well as on the chemical composition. Therefore, the redesigning of chemical composition of high-strength aluminum alloys becomes significant for safety critical structural components in automotive industry.Read more
Davor Stanić, Zdenka Zovko Brodarac, Letian Li

SARS-CoV-2 structure and replication characterized by in situ cryo-electron tomography
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of the COVID19 pandemic, is a highly pathogenic β-coronavirus. As other coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 is enveloped, replicates in the cytoplasm and assembles at intracellular membranes. Here, we structurally characterize the viral replication compartment and report critical insights into the budding mechanism of the virus, and the structure of extracellular virions close to their native state by in situ cryo-electr... Read more
Steffen Klein, Mirko Cortese, Sophie L. Winter, Moritz Wachsmuth-Melm, Christopher J. Neufeldt, Berati Cerikan, Megan L. Stanifer, Steeve Boulant, Ralf Bartenschlager, Petr Chlanda

As key functional units in neural circuits, different types of neuronal synapses play distinct roles in brain information processing, learning, and memory. Synaptic abnormalities are believed to underlie various neurological and psychiatric disorders. Here, by combining cryo-electron tomography and cryo-correlative light and electron microscopy, we distinguished intact excitatory and inhibitory synapses of cultured hippocampal neurons, and visualized the in situ 3D organization of ... Read more
Chang-Lu Tao, Yun-Tao Liu, Rong Sun, Bin Zhang, Lei Qi, Sakar Shivakoti, Chong-Li Tian, Peijun Zhang, Pak-Ming Lau, Z. Hong Zhou and Guo-Qiang Bi

Three-dimensional imaging of the intracellular assembly of a functional viral RNA replicase complex
Positive-strand RNA viruses, which can be devastating pathogens in humans, animals and plants, replicate their genomes on intracellular membranes. Here, we describe the three-dimensional ultrastructural organization of a tombusvirus replicase in yeast, a valuable model for exploring virus–host interactions…
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Isabel Fernández de Castro, José J. Fernández, Daniel Barajas, Peter D. Nagy, Cristina Risco

HIV-1 maturation occurs via multiple proteolytic cleavages of the Gag polyprotein, causing rearrangement of the virus particle required for infectivity. (…) How individual cleavages contribute to changes in protein structure and interactions, and how the mature, conical capsid forms, are poorly understood. Here, we employed cryoelectron tomography to determine morphology and high-resolution CA lattice structures for HIV1 derivatives in which Gag cleavage sites are mutated. These analyse... Read more
Simone Mattei, Aaron Tan, Barbel Glass, Barbara Muller, Hans-Georg Krausslich, and John A. G. Briggs

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
Laurie Verzeaux, Nicolas Belloy, Jessica Thevenard-Devy, Jérôme Devy, Géraldine Ferracci, Laurent Martiny, Stéphane Dedieu, Manuel Dauchez, Hervé Emonard, Nicolas Etique & Emmanuelle Devarenne-Charpentier

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

Laser-matter interactions in laser additive manufacturing (LAM) occur on short time scales (10-6 – 10-3 s) and have traditionally proven difficult to characterise. We investigate these interactions during LAM of stainless steel (SS316 L) and 13-93 bioactive glass powders using a custom built LAM process replicator (LAMPR) with in situ and operando synchrotron X-ray radiography. This reveals a range of melt track solidification phenomena as... Read more
Chu Lun Alex Leung, Sebastian Marussi, Michael Towrie, Jesus del Val Garcia, Robert C. Atwood, Andrew J. Bodey, Julian R. Jones, Philip J. Withers, Peter D.Lee

Air bubbles in calcium caseinate fibrous material enhances anisotropy
Dense calcium caseinate dispersions can be transformed into hierarchically fibrous structures by shear deformation. This transformation can be attributed to the intrinsic properties of calcium caseinate. Depending on the dispersion preparation method, a certain amount of air gets entrapped in the sheared protein matrix. Although anisotropy is obtained in the absence of entrapped air, the fibrous appearance and mechanical anisotropy of the calcium caseinate materials are more pronounced with... Read more
Zhaojun Wang, Bei Tian, Remko Boom, Atze Jan van der Goot

Advances in the Synthesis and Long‐Term Protection of Zero‐Valent Iron Nanoparticles
Core@shell Fe@Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) are synthesized via the thermal decomposition of iron pentacarbonyl (Fe(CO)5) in the presence either of oleylamine (OAm) or a mixture of OAm and oleic acid (OA). The heterostructured nanocomposites formed do so by a postsynthetic modification of isolated Fe seeds. This proves the versatility of the coating procedure and represents a significant advantage over previous work with Co seeds owing to the higher magnetic susc... Read more
Joshua P. Mehta, Benjamin R. Knappett, Giorgio Divitini, Emilie Ringe, Paul A. Midgley, David Fairen‐Jimenez, Andrew E. H. Wheatley

3D characterization of the fracture mechanisms of a Fe-rich Al-Si-Cu alloy
The effect of the defect size and morphology on the fatigue damage evolution was analysed in a recycled Al-Si-Cu alloy by micro-computed tomography and scanning electron microscopy. Fatigue tests were performed and the different crack initiation scenarios were characterized and classified. The interaction between shrinkage and gas pores was the key crack initiation mechanism and the ß-Al5FeSi particles did not play any role in the crack initiation phase. However, crack path analysis indicate... Read more
Angelika Brueckner-Foit, Inigo Bacaicoa, Martin Luetje, Marcel Wicke, Andreas Geisert, Martin Fehlbier