BIOQUANT Life Science
Feature Chronology
Following is a list of new features and enhancements added to BIOQUANT Life Science from BIOQUANT Life Science 2008, v 8.40.2 to BIOQUANT Life Science 2023, v 23.7.6.
If you do not have an active Technical Services Plan, you still may qualify for an upgrade to the latest version of BIOQUANT that was available when your technical services plan expired. Contact us at support@bioquant.com to find out more.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2023: Version 23.5
BIOQUANT Life Science 2023 v 23.7.6 for Windows 10/11 was released on July 31st, 2023. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan on July 31st, 2023, your lab can receive this upgrade free of charge. Download the complete release notes.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2023 SUPPORTS WINDOWS 11 & WINDOWS 10
BIOQUANT Life Science 2023 now supports Windows 11 64-bit. Windows 10 64-bit is also supported. As of 2020, BIOQUANT no longer supports Windows 7.
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.
Save Navigator BIF Image Plus Stamp
Previously, calibration scale bars could be saved only on images from the Image Window. This was done through Save Image > Save Image Window plus Graphics.
Now, calibration scale bars can be saved on the entire BIF scan, regardless of size. This makes it possible to annotate whole slide scans so the micron per pixel calibration factor is easy to determine when exporting scans to TIF, an uncalibrated format.
To save the stamp on the BIF image in the Image Navigator, a new Save Image is available, “Save Image Navigator BIF plus Stamp.”
Editing Tool: Fill (ALL)
Previously, there were two kinds of fill: fill one hole and fill all the holes in a single object. In some contexts, this was inefficient.
A new fill tool has been added: Fill All Holes. This tool can quickly fill small holes in bone when measuring osteclast surface with TRAP stain. Additionally, this tool is especially helpful for unstained or partially stained tissue where the bone surface must be drawn by hand.
The Fill (All) tool is used to fill all holes in the thresholding that are smaller than the Fill All Operator minimum size specified on the Editing Setup box.
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 sampling area (2) Create a polygon shape that is a known distance from surfaces in the sampling area. 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 sampling area region of interest.
Scan: New “Cancel Focus” Button Lets You Override Auto Focus
Currently, automatic focus correction is either enabled to disabled in the beginning setup for a series of scans.
Normally, it is on. However, it’s not always easy to predict if a tissue section is going to be compatible with the automatic focus correction. Some very wavy sections or some very thick sections don’t work well with autofocus.
To help address this situation, a “Cancel Focus” button has been added that is available while the scan is running. Now, if the auto focus controls are not working well with a scan, you can click the “Cancel Focus” button to revert the scan to Manual Focus Correction without interrupting the scan. The scan will continue as configured, now pausing periodically for manual focus correction.
Small Quality of Life Enhancements
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.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2022: Version 22.7
BIOQUANT Life Science 2022 v 22.7.6 for Windows 10 was released on July 31st, 2022. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan on July31st, 2022, your lab can receive this upgrade free of charge. Download the complete release notes.
Live Background Correction - Jenoptik Cameras
A new background correction algorithm has been implemented to correct for uneven lighting and imperfections in the optics like dust. The background correction is done on the live image so the live image and held image are identical. Previously, the live image was uncorrected and the correction was applied retroactively after the image was captured.
One Click Brightfield Setup - Jenoptik Cameras
A new automatic setup algorithm for brightfield imaging has been implemented. Clicking a single “Brightfield Setup” button adjusts both image brightness and color accuracy. From there, turning on the live background correction gets you a near-perfect image with two simple clicks.
Black Fluorescent background - Jenoptik Cameras
A new algorithm called fluorescence black balance has been implemented to correct for for autofluorescence. Dim background fluorescence is now suppressed to black. This makes it easier to see strongly labeled mineralizing surfaces.
Enhanced Camera Presets - Jenoptik Cameras
BIOQUANT now loads a standardized camera preset file when started. This allows labs to customize their startup settings to match their specific microscope. Additionally, all new camera settings like fluorescent black balance can be stored in camera presets.
Enhanced manual setup - Jenoptik cameras
The Manual Setup dialog box has been simplified and enhanced. Color skew has been moved to the main region. Camera Frame Rate has been added to the advanced region.
Simplified Background Setup for IOD Data
The background correction and background storage user interface has been simplified to menu items in the Image region. This allowed the Background Correction dialog box to be removed. This is true for Jenoptik cameras, QImaging cameras, and image files.
BIOQUANT SCAN - Custom Names for set by topo
Each of the 8 possible scan areas can now be named individually.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2021: Version 21.7
BIOQUANT Life Science 2021 v 21.7.6 for Windows 10 was released on July 31st, 2021. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan on July 1st, 2021, your lab can receive this upgrade free of charge. Download the complete release notes.
HIGHLIGHTED FEATURES
WINDOWS 10 REQUIRED. WINDOWS 7 NOT SUPPORTED.
Microsoft discontinued support of Windows 7 on January 14, 2020. BIOQUANT Life Science 2021 no longer supports Windows 7.
New Expanded OME-TIF Support
BIOQUANT has expanded support for multi-dimensional image data from confocal and light sheet microscopes. BIOQUANT 2021 now supports both single file and multiple file OME-TIFs.
NEW REDRAW / OVERVIEW Z OFFSET SUPPORT
The following new Redraw menu items and Overview window menus make it easier to navigate 5D image data by only showing the measurement tracings for the current Z position. The current Z position is shown in the Parameters region, in the Z Offset field.
This feature can also be used to redraw at different Z positions in physical sections, as well as to redraw at different Z Positions in the Dicom Navigator.
NEW AUTO SURFACE MEASUREMENT TYPE
Auto Surface is a new Measurement Type. It automatically generates length measurements for on thresholded objects. Previously, to measure the length of an object, the standard solution was to measure the perimeter of the object and divide by 2. With Auto Surface, BIOQUANT directly measures the length along the mid-line of an object.
NEW SCAN MULTIPLE AREAS & SKIP EMPTY FIELDS
This method allows scan areas to be quickly marked out using the lowest power objective on the microscope, then automatically scanned with you preferred imaging objective, usually 20X or 40X.
Up to 8 different scan areas can be scanned in one session.
This also means that BIOQUANT SCAN now skips all fields of view that are not in the scan area, significantly speeding up scan times. Previously, BIOQUANT SCAN collected an image of each field of view in a rectangle that contained the scan area. Since tissue sections are rarely rectangular, a lot of those fields of view were blank.
NEW COOLLED FLUORESCENCE ILLUMINATOR CONTROL
BIOQUANT SCAN can now control the CoolLED pE-300 White fluorescence light source.
The pE-300 is a multi-channel LED fluorescence excitation light source. Since it is an LED light source, it has an extremely long life. Since it a multi-channel light source, the excitation strength of each fluorochrome can be adjusted individually.
This means that when working with multi-label mineralizing surfaces, you can turn down the brightness of the calcein label and turn up the brightness of the alizarin red label at the light source. This helps preserve the sample and simplifies camera settings. There no need now to use camera settings to adjust the relative brightness of labels in the image.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2020: Version 20.7
BIOQUANT Life Science 2020 v 20.7.6 for Windows 10 was released on July 31st, 2020. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan on July 1st, 2020, your lab can receive this upgrade free of charge. Download the complete release notes.
HIGHLIGHTED FEATURES
WINDOWS 10 REQUIRED. WINDOWS 7 NOT SUPPORTED.
Microsoft discontinued support of Windows 7 on January 14, 2020. BIOQUANT Life Science 2020 no longer supports Windows 7.
JENOPTIK PROKYON CAMERA: NEW CAPTURE SIZES
The PROKYON camera model adds additional capture sizes of 3840 x 2400 and 5760 x 3600.
In September 2019, BIOQUANT Life Science added support for the biggest camera technology upgrade since the introduction of the first high resolution digital cameras.
BIOQUANT now supports the PROKYON, KAPELLA, and SUBRA cameras from Jenotpik. These Jenoptik cameras all use a next generation scientific CMOS sensor that eliminate the compromises inherent to all the prior CCD sensor cameras.
These cameras can deliver a full 1920x1200 resolution image at between 30 and 60 frames per second. This is 2X to 4X faster than current cameras at 4X the resolution. In BIOQUANT, supported Jenoptik cameras provide a live image at 1280x960 to the Image Window with optional 1920x1200 image capture.
5D IMAGE NAVIGATOR
BIOQUANT is pleased to announce support for a new dimension in musculoskeletal research. BIOQUANT Life Science now supports multi-dimensional image data from confocal and lightsheet microscopes.
New optical clearing techniques for in-tact bone have made the use of confocal microscopy possible in previously inaccessible bone samples. Labs are now leveraging confocal microscopy in bone to explore solutions to previously intractable questions.
Simultaneously, a new generation of microscope systems called Lightsheet microscopes are starting to collect enormous image data sets of entire bones with multiple fluorescent labels and multiple Z depths at sub-micron resolutions.
Multi-dimensional image data in the OME-TIFF format is loaded into the 5D Navigator using with the new “Open OME TIF File to 5D Image Navigator” menu item on the Sequence button in the Image region
If your confocal or lightsheet software cannot save to OME-TIFF, the BIO-FORMATS plug-in to ImageJ can be used to convert it to the OME-TIFF format. We have a procedure that walk you through using ImageJ to covert to OME-TIFF, contact us!
Currently BIOQUANT opens single OME-TIFF files up to 4 GB. If future versions, BIOQUANT will support sequences of multiple OME-TIFF files which will allow the maximum image data size to expand beyond 4GB. If you are interested in beta testing this feature, contact BIOQUANT Support.
CONVERT BIF SEQUENCE TO TIF
The Convert BIF Sequence to TIF feature is used to convert a series of BIF images to the TIF format. This is useful if BIOQUANT SCAN or the Imaging Toolkit has been used to save a series of calibrated BIF images that the end user would like to also have in a format that other programs can use. To find this feature, in the Image region, click the Sequence button and choose “Convert BIF Sequence to TIF” from the pop-up menu to open the “Convert Sequence to TIF” box.
CROP TOOL CAN NOW QUICKLY SAVE MULTIPLE REGIONS FROM A SCAN
Navigator Setup has new options for Crop. The crop tool can now save part of a scan without reloading the saved image by unchecking the new “Reload Image After Save” box.
CROP TOOL CAN CROP AUTOMATICALLY TO 4:3 RECTANGLE
A new “Crop 4:3 ratio” check box has been added to the Navigator Setup box. If this box is checked, then when you draw the crop box, it will be forced to a 4:3 ratio. This is the same ratio as the Image window and the Image Navigator Pan box. This makes it easy to use the Coarse Move Pan Box tool to navigate in a comb pattern through the Image Navigator at high zoom level.
SUPPORT FOR LZW COMPRESSED TIF IMAGES
Open Single and the Open Image Sequence now automatically uncompress and open LZW compressed TIFs. When the system detects and LZW compressed TIF, it automatically creates an uncompressed version and opens it in BIOQUANT. Consequently, it will bit longer than opening an uncompressed TIF. The uncompressed version of the TIF is saved in the same directory with the same name as the compressed TIF, with “uncompressed” appended. In prior versions of BIOQUANT, LZW compressed TIF images could not be opened.
OPEN DATA SET DEFAULTS TO CURRENT VOLUME AND DATA SET
Data Region: Data Set> Open a Different Data Set The Open a Different Data Set dialog box now opens with the current Data Volume and current Data Set already selected. This makes it easier to open other data sets in the same volume. If a Tutorial Set is open, then use the Data Set>Open a Tutorial Data Set menu instead of Open a Different Data set to open another Tutorial Set.
BIOQUANT SCAN NOW DELETES SOURCE FILES AFTER A SCAN IS MADE
A “Delete Source Files after Montage” option has been added to Scan Multiple Slide Setup. On the Scan Multiple Slides box, on the Options menu, there is a new menu item, “Delete Source Files after Montage.” If it is checked, the individual field of view source files used to create the montage will be deleted after the montage has been generated. Generally this option will stay checked on. Delete Source Files after Montage is default to ON when BIOQUANT is installed. If you uncheck it, it will remain unchecked across BIOQUANT sessions.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2019: Version 19.9
BIOQUANT Life Science 2019 v 19.9.6 for Windows 10/7 was released on September 25, 2019. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan on September 1, 2019, your lab can receive this upgrade free of charge. Download the complete release notes.
HIGHLIGHTED FEATURE
JENOPTIK GRYPHAX® KAPELLA AND SUBRA SUPPORT
BIOQUANT is excited to announce support for the biggest camera technology upgrade since the introduction of the first high resolution digital cameras.
In addition to the PROKYON camera, BIOQUANT now supports the KAPELLA and SUBRA cameras from Jenotpik. These Jenoptik cameras all use a next generation scientific CMOS sensor that eliminate the compromises inherent to all the prior CCD sensor cameras.
These cameras can deliver a full 1920x1200 resolution image at between 30 and 60 frames per second. This is 2X to 4X faster than current cameras at 4X the resolution. In BIOQUANT, supported Jenoptik cameras provide a live image at 1280x960 to the Image Window with optional 1920x1200 image capture.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2019: Version 19.5 Released
BIOQUANT Life Science 2019 v19.5.6 was released on May 31, 2019. It began shipment on June 20, 2019. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan as of June 1, 2019, your lab can receive this upgrade free of charge. Download the release notes.
Highlighted Features
JENOPTIK GRYPHAX® PROKYON Camera Support
Jenoptik equips the JENOPTIK GRYPHAX® PROKYON microscope cameras with the latest CMOS technology. Short exposure times and high image refresh rates make the system time-saving and convenient to use. This means you can position and focus fast and easily.
BIOQUANT is currently offering a 20% discount on the JENOPTIK GRYPHAX® PROKYON camera for the trade in of your existing camera.
IMAGING EXTENSIONS ARE NOW PART OF BIOQUANT Life Science
Tools which were previously part of the BIOQUANT Imaging Extensions add-on have been integrated into all versions of BIOQUANT.
BIOQUANT SCAN remains a separate add-on. BIOQUANT SCAN is responsible for the automated control of motorized stages, the automatic focus correction of images, and the whole slide scanning of sections.
DATA REGION NEW FEATURES & ENHANCEMENTS
The Selected List region has been renamed to the Data region. The Arrays menu, the Edit menu, and parts of the File menu have been moved into the data region. Now, all the functions related to data are now found in the Data region.
EDITING REGION NEW FEATURES & ENHANCEMENTS
The Editing region has changed quite a bit in this version. The number of tools has increased substantially. Note in particular that there are now 4 kinds of Draw tools, 4 kinds of Erase tools, 2 new Separate tools, and 2 Clean tools. Many of these new tools help with separating touching cells and are useful with the Measure Cells and Myofibers Measurement Types.
In addition, there are new hotkeys to swap between Editing buttons while you are editing in the Image window. Even better, the “U” key will undo the last threshold edit made while the cursor is still editing in the Image window.
Templates/Protocols
The Life Science 2019 Tutorial Volume has new and improved Tutorial Sets. Each Tutorial Set has an associated guide and sample image(s). Follow the Guide steps to learn the protocol.
The Tutorials also often have procedures in the BIOQUANT Life Science manual, which provide images or videos to help learn the protocol.
To see if the tutorial has an associated video, in the Measurement region, click the > button to open the Life Science 2019 Video Handbook.
New Tutorial Sets
New Myofiber Tutorial: Myofiber BF H&E Regenerated. This new tutorial demonstrates myofiber analysis over multiple fields of view when central nuclei are plentiful and when myofibers are densely clustered. It is a good introduction to the editing tools introduced in this version.
New Measure Cells Tutorial: Measure Cells - Editing. This slightly more advanced version of the cell counting tutorial introduces some of the editing tools that help separate clusters of cells.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2018: Version 18.5 Released
BIOQUANT Life Science 2018 v18.5.6 was released on May 31, 2018. It began shipment on June 20, 2018. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan as of June 1, 2018, your lab can receive this upgrade free of charge. Download the release notes.
Highlighted Features
MYOFIBERS MEASUREMENT TYPE
There is a new Measurement Type called the Myofibers Measurement Type. The Myofibers Measurement Type simultaneously measures myofiber area, central nuclei number/myofiber, and myofiber diameter. This protocol replaces the Muscle Phenotyping protocol from previous versions of BIOQUANT.
SUPPORT FOR QIMAGING BIOQUANT PV1 CAMERA
Developed in cooperation with QIMAGING, the BIOQUANT PV1 camera is built specifically for the imaging requirement of musculoskeletal research. This ensures high sensitivity in color imaging of real-time multi-channel fluorescence.
CONVERT SEQUENCE TO BIF
BIOQUANT now support the batch conversion of TIF, JPG, or BMP images into the BIF format. This is helpful for converting images captured with slide scanners or other digital cameras.
TEMPLATES/PROTOCOLS
A new Myofibers Template has been added.
This template replaces the Muscle Phenotyping template found in BIOQUANT Life Science 2017.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2017: Version 17.5 Released
BIOQUANT Life Science 2017 v17.5.6 was released on May 31, 2017. It began shipment on June 20, 2017. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan as of June 1, 2017, your lab can receive this upgrade free of charge. Download the release notes.
Highlighted Features
Video Help
BIOQUANT Life Science 2017 now has integrated video within the BIOQUANT Life Science 2017 Manual. These videos have also been pulled out into a second manual that consists only of videos. There are several ways to quickly open video help.
On the Tool Ribbon, Click the Video Tutorial Help Button
From the Help Menu, Choose Tutorial Videos
On the Desktop, Double Click the Life Science Video Tutorials Manual
Pyramid TIF Export
Users can save up to 4 GB TIF images as Pyramid TIF images.
Pyramid TIF files are compatible with a wide range of digital pathology software applications. These include both desktop applications and web server applications, like IIP server.
Pyramid TIF Export is only used to export TIF images for third party software. We do not recommend saving Pyramid TIF images for analysis in BIOQUANT. However, BIOQUANT can open Pyramid TIF images it has saved.
Auto All in Threshold
The new Auto All button in the Threshold region automatically sets the Red, Green, and Blue threshold ranges to 0 to 255, which thresholds everything in the Image window. This is particularly useful if you want to measure the area of a region of interest.
Tutorial Enhancements
In BIOQUANT Life Science 2017, the Sample Datasets have been replaced with Tutorial Sets that are opened directly using the Open a Tutorial Set box.
Welcome Screen - Open a Tutorial Set
On the Welcome splash screen that comes up when you open BIOQUANT Life Science, a new “Open a Tutorial Data Set” button has been added.
This button opens the Open Tutorial Set box, which lists all the Tutorial Data Sets included with BIOQUANT Life Science. Once a Tutorial Data Set is selected, you can follow its Guide to learn the protocol. The Tutorial Data Sets use Sample Images that were installed when you installed BIOQUANT Life Science 2017.
Color Palette Changes
The Color palette has changed to offer brighter colors.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2016: Version 16.5 Released
BIOQUANT Life Science 2016 v16.5.6 for Windows 7 was released on May 31, 2016. It began shipment on June 20, 2016. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan as of June 1, 2016, your lab can receive this upgrade free of charge. Download the release notes.
Highlighted Features
WINDOWS 10 SUPPORT
BIOQUANT Life Science now supports Windows 10 and Windows 7.
We do not officially support Windows 8. BIOQUANT will probably work, but we haven’t tested under Windows 8, and we haven’t created a BIOQUANT profile for the interface, so it will look crowded. We recommend you upgrade to Windows 10.
The installation program auto detects your version of Windows and installs the correct BIOQUANT profile for the operating system.
MULTI-BAND THRESHOLD
A new Multi-Band Threshold feature has been added. This feature is in beta stage. We look forward to your feedback. Currently Multi-Band Threshold works independently of traditional thresholding, however, the two methods will be integrated in future versions.
SCAN - Set by Edges
The scan area can now be set by marking the various edges of the area to be scanned. BIOQUANT will compute the necessary size and shape of the scan area. Scanning multiple slides at once is not supported with “Set by Edges.”
In previous versions, the only way to set the scan area for a section was to mark the center of the scan area and then tell BIOQUANT how big of an area to scan around the center.
LIN - Crop Image
The Large Image Navigator has a new feature that lets you crop a Scan to the region you are actually interested in measuring. This is also useful because the Shrink To Fit zoom level will now be able to show measurement region at a high resolution.
You can crop a BIF, BMP, or TIF image. The system will crop the image to the same file type that it was before the crop, i.e., BIF to BIF, BMP to BMP, and TIF to TIF.
LIN - Pan box snaps to ROI
Using Auto ROI with the Large Image Navigator has been improved so that if you move the Pan box completely outside of the Tissue Volume redraw, the system now snaps the Pan box to the nearest field with Tissue Volume tracing.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2015: Version 15.5 Released
BIOQUANT Life Science 2015 v15.5.6 for Windows 7 was released on May 31, 2015. It began shipment on June 20, 2015. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan as of June 1, 2015, your lab can receive this upgrade free of charge. Download the release notes.
Highlighted Features
Measure Cells
The new Measure Cells measurement type is used to measure cell populations from field to field. This tool enables quick cell measurement by ensuring that only cells within the sampling area are counted, automatically filtering out partial cell profiles cells cut by the region of interest, and preventing duplicate measurements on overlapping fields of view.
Add/Remove to Threshold using Scroll Wheel
The easiest way to define a threshold now is to use the scroll wheel when using Select and Add. Once the starting color has been chosen, scrolling the mouse wheel up adds similar colors automatically to the threshold. Scrolling the wheel down removes the least similar colors from the threshold.
Disable Threshold Button
The threshold can be disabled by clicking the Disable button so that it is DOWN to quickly turn off all three of the color channels. Clicking the Disable button so that it is UP will turn back on all three color channels.
When the stain is hard to threshold, disabling the threshold is useful because it allows the user to manually paint in the threshold using the Draw Threshold tool. Once the threshold is manually painted in, it can be automatically measured using the measurement region.
ZOOM AND DRAW/ERASE THRESHOLD
The Draw Threshold and Erase Threshold brush size circle now updates automatically when using the Z key to zoom in and out on the image.
INCREASE/DECREASE BRUSH SIZE USING SCROLL WHEEL WHILE DRAWING/ERASING
When drawing or erasing threshold the user may now increase or decrease the brush size by using the scroll wheel on their mouse.
Camera Presets
Camera Presets have been added for supported QImaging digital cameras. Camera presets store exposure time, master gain, and white balance (red gain, green gain, and blue gain) values to a file in the Camera Presets folder on the hard drive. The camera preset file can be loaded later to retrieve the camera settings.
SCAN - Back button to recapture blurry images
A “Back” button has been added. When the stage pauses to allow for refocusing, clicking the back button moves the stage to preceding image capture positions. This is helpful if the stage is set to only stop every 3 fields of view to adjust focus. The stage can be backed up to the 1st or 2nd field to adjust the focus and recapture the images. Clicking the Continue button resumes automated image capture.
Templates/Protocols
Several LIFE SCIENCE Templates and sample data sets have been updated to use the Measure Cells type instead of the Object type. The PDF and eBook Manual protocols and guides for the templates and sample datasets have also been updated.
SCAN - Photobleach safe Spot
When scanning a large fluorescent section, the technician may not always be on hand to swap the slides when the scan is finished. To avoid photobleaching the section, two new features have been added: Automatically close the PhotoFluor II excitation Shutter, and Move to a Blank Location on the Slide.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2014: Version 14.5 Released
BIOQUANT Life Science 2014 v14.5.6 for Windows 7 was released on May 31, 2014. It began shipment on June 19, 2014. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan as of June 1, 2014, your lab can receive this upgrade free of charge. Download the release notes.
Highlighted Features
Welcome Screen
Now when BIOQUANT Life Science is opened the “Welcome to BIOQUANT” box opens. From this box you can choose to open the current data set, create a new data volume and set, use Quick Data Set, or open a different data set.
Assign to Data Set
You may now assign the selected order of measurement arrays and the calculation list to the data set. This is automatically load the lists when the set is opened.
Auto ROI
If you are measuring on a very large digital image of your slide in the Large Image Navigator, there is an enhancement that will auto generate the region of interest for you at high power within a Sampling Area based on the topography of the sampling area. If the Sampling Area boundary IS NOT within the field of view, the system automatically changes the ROI to Full Field. If the Sampling Area boundary IS within the field of view, the system automatically generates an ROI based on the Sampling Area boundary. Auto ROI currently does not support live imaging from the microscope.
Cut Edge Objects
Cut Edge Objects is a new Threshold Editing tool that cuts the threshold of objects touching the edge of the region of interest. The cut threshold goes to the Threshold Backup Buffer and can be retrieved later using Paste or Mask, as long as it is not overwritten by another Cut, Copy, or Copy All operation.
SCAN to more than one image file type: BIF, BMP, TIF, JPG
Previously SCAN only create BIF (BIOQUANT Image Format) files. Now you may collect images in BMP, TIF, and JPG for external montaging programs.
Templates/Protocols
The following templates are new. They each have an assigned Selected List, Calculation List, and Guide, if available.
Auto Width Type-Retinal Layers
Cell Counting-2 Cell Types
Cell Counting-Proliferation
Density Wand Type-Cells
Planar and Contour Conversion
Trace Type-Specimen Area
Guides - improved interface on Editor
The Guide Editor box has been redesigned with an improved user interface.
Batch Script - improved interface on Editor
The Batch Script dialog box has been redesigned. The buttons now have text labels. Functionality is the same.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2013: Version 13.5 Released
BIOQUANT Life Science 2013 v13.5.6 for Windows 7 was released on May 31, 2013. It began shipment on June 15, 2013. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan as of June 1, 2013, your lab can receive this upgrade free of charge. Download the release notes.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2012: Version 12.5 Released
BIOQUANT Life Science 2012 v12.5.6 for Windows 7 was released on May 1, 2012. It began shipment on May 20, 2012. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan as of June 1, 2012, your lab can receive this upgrade free of charge. Download the release notes.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2011: Version 11.2 Released
BIOQUANT Life Science 2011 v11.2.6 for Windows 7 was released on February 28, 2011. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan on February 28, 2011, your lab can receive this upgrade free of charge. Download the release notes.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2010: Version 10.3 Released
BIOQUANT Life Science v10.3.6 for Windows 7 and Windows Vista was released March 31, 2010. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan on March 31, 2010, your lab can receive this upgrade free of charge.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2009: Version 9.7 Released
BIOQUANT Life Science 2009 v9.7.6 for Windows Vista was released July 16, 2009. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan n July 16, 2009, you may qualify to receive this upgrade free of charge.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2009: Version 9.0 for Windows XP
BIOQUANT Life Science 2009 v9.00.XP for Windows XP was released November 1, 2008. If your system was covered by an active Technical Services Plan on November 1, 2008, you might qualify to receive this upgrade free of charge.
BIOQUANT Life Science 2008: Version 8.4 for Windows XP
BIOQUANT Life Science v8.40.20 was released February 1st, 2008. This was the final version of BIOQUANT Life Science available to most labs without a technical services plan.
If you currently have any of the following versions, you can receive the 8.4 update free of charge.
Life Science Version 8.30.20
Life Science Version 8.20.20
Life Science Version 8.12.20
Life Science Version 8.11.20
Life Science Version 8.10.20
Life Science Version 8.00.20