Researchers at the Centre for Microvascular Research at Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry are using image modelling software to study in vivo analysis of the dynamics of leukocyte migration in the immune response.
The image visualisation and analysis software provides a stable platform to examine long term micro-structural changes in 3D, in real time.
The centre has a strong and internationally acknowledged expertise in the application of specialised imaging methods, including confocal intravital microscopy which allows in vivo observation of events within the microcirculation.
Dr Abigail Woodfin and her colleagues at the centre are using advanced Imaris 4D modelling software from Bitplane.
'After investigating several 3D modelling platforms we chose Bitplane Imaris. As well as a comprehensive feature set and user-friendly interface, it proved to be the most stable when analysing very large files, which was essential to our work,' said Dr Woodfin. 'Because of this, Imaris enabled us to track the movement of leukocytes relative to the endothelial cells lining the vessel wall over many sequential time points.
'During long periods of analysis there is always a degree of movement with living tissue and we used the Imaris drift correction function to correct for this. The crucial thing was that Imaris allowed us to convert our data into a virtual 3D object that could be fully manipulated in terms of rotation position, zoom, and the intensity at which each channel is displayed. This is not possible using 2D projections of Z-stacks, which is how confocal microscopy images are traditionally presented.'
Fast, precise and easy-to-use, Imaris is a powerful and versatile solution for the visualisation, analysis and interpretation of 3D and 4D images. Bitplane is part of the Andor Group.
