Introducing
BIOQUANT LIFE SCIENCE 2023
Active Technical Services Plan? Request the Upgrade!
We’re excited to announce the release of BIOQUANT Life Science 2023. If your lab had an active technical services plan on July 31, 2023, this upgrade is available to you at no cost.
New BIOQUANT Life Science Features
No Motorized/Encoded Stage?
Use the New Virtual Stage Controller!
With the Virtual Stage Controller, BIOQUANT uses software features to simulate the movement of a motorized stage when measuring or imaging at high magnification.
The Virtual Stage Controller can also be used to scan sections with your microscope into the calibrated BIF format for faster analysis. The Virtual Stage Controller also allows you to measure directly on a live image without overlap.
The Virtual Stage Controller requires one of the three new high-speed, high-resolution, high-sensitivity Jenoptik cameras.
Details
A simple control pad guides the software across the section between adjacent, non-overlapping fields of view.
A semi-transparent image overlay of the previous field of view shows where to align the stage for the next field of view.
Measurement tracings made on previous fields of view reappear in the overlapping areas between fields of view.
The Overview “You Are Here” box updates on a map of your section to show your current position relative to the entire section.
Works for any size sample, any number of fields of view, and in any shape. Scans as large as 4GB are possible, all without a motorized stage.
The Virtual Stage Controller mimics the functionality of a motorized stage.
Need to Save a Scale Bar on the Scan?
Use the New Save Scale Bar on Scan Option!
Calibration scale bars can now be added when saving BIF format histology scans open in the Image Navigator to the TIF or BMP formats. This makes it possible to annotate whole slide scans so the micron per pixel calibration is documented when exporting scans to the uncalibrated TIF or BMP formats.
The scale bar shows up in both the Image window and on the Image Navigator thumbnail.
A 700 micron scale bar has been permanently embedded into the TIF file.
Need to Quickly Fill All the Holes in the Threshold?
Use the New Editing Tool: Fill All!
Previously, there were two kinds of fill: fill a single hole and fill all the holes in a single object.
A new Fill All tool has been added to the Editing region. This tool quickly fills holes in the osteoclast threshold when measuring osteoclast surface on TRAP stains.This tool is especially helpful for filling in manual threshold drawn on unstained or partially stained tissues.
Need a Precisely Shaped Tissue Volume?
Use Stamp Tools to Help You Draw the ROI!
Previously, there were two methods to standardize the shape of the tissue volume referent value: (1) Create a rectangle of know height and width that is a known distance from a point on the tissue section (2) Create a polygon shape that is a known distance from surfaces in the tissue section. These two tools are not flexible enough.
Now, all the annotations in the Stamp tools can used on the image prior to drawing the region of interest. These annotations help lay out the precise boundaries of the Tissue Volume region of interest.
One common example is to create a histology Tissue Volume shape that exactly matches the curvature of the tissue. For example, if you want 500 microns along the curve of a retina cross section, you can’t use a rectangle to define the distance. By using the Stamp Tools to define how far along the curve of the retina 500 microns is it becomes easy to draw the Region of Interest to closely match what you want.
Quality of Life Enhancements
Find Data Sets More Easily
New projects (data volumes) are now stored in Windows folders that match the Data Volume Name. For example the project “My Project” is now stored in C:\BQDATA\My Project. This makes it easier find and backup data. Previously, data volumes were stored in automatically named folders like C:\BQDATA\DATA1 and you had to use the Data Manager to navigate data.
Data Export Improvements
Data are always exported to 6 decimal places. Previously, some export tools defaulted to 2 decimal places.
Exported projects with data sets that have identical names are now properly formatted. Previously, the second data set didn’t have a name label.
Bulk add and remove for arrays on the Export Individual Arrays box is now supported. Previously, there was no support for bulk remove.
Exporting more than 21 arrays using Export Individual Arrays box is now supported.
TIF Import Improvements
BIOQUANT now supports importing TIFs in the tiled format. To speed up loading these images, a reformatted version of tiled TIFs are saved in the strip format.
New BIOQUANT SCAN Features
Auto Focus Not Working on a Section?
Use the New “Cancel Focus” Button!
Previously, automatic focus correction was selected at the beginning of a scan and was used for the entire scan. Some sections, however, don’t work well with the auto focus and it’s hard to know in advance.
To help solve this, a “Cancel Focus” button has been added to the Scan control box. If the auto focus doesn’t work for a scan, click the “Cancel Focus” button to switch the scan to scan to Manual Focus Correction. The scan will continue on, but now will pause periodically to allow for manual manual focus correction.
Windows 10 /Windows 11 Supported
BIOQUANT Life Science 23.5 adds support for Windows 11. BIOQUANT Life Science continues support for Windows 10.
BIOQUANT dropped support for Windows 7 in version 20. On January 14, 2020, Microsoft discontinued support of Windows 7. BIOQUANT Life Science 19 included a message about the upcoming end of support for Windows 7.
Recommended Computer Specifications
BIOQUANT Life Science 2023 has been optimized to run on PCs with core clock speeds of 4.0GHz of higher and solid state storage. As scans continue to get larger and larger, faster processors and faster storage drives have become increasingly important.