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XuvTools (pronounced “ex-you-vee-tools”) is a fully automated 3D stitching software for biomedical image data, typically confocal microscopy images. XuvTools runs on Microsoft Windows XP and Vista, Linux and Apple Mac computers. It supports 32 and 64bit operating systems (with 64bit highly preferred). XuvTools is free and open source software (see Licensing), so you can start using it immediately. Go to Downloads and give it a try. The goal of XuvTools is to provide tools, that combine multiple microscopic recordings to obtain a larger field of view (“stitching”) and a higher dynamic range (“HDR” recombination), or better resolution (multi view reconstruction), and to make these tools publicly available.

Auto-Bayes is a software package based on Bayesian statistics and requires no user dependent parameters for molecule detection and image reconstruction for Single-Molecule Localization Microscopy (SMLM), including photoactivated localization microscope (PALM), stochastic optical reconstruction microscope (STORM), and direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM), etc.

Free-D (http://free-d.versailles.inra.fr/) is a 3D reconstruction and modeling software. It is multiplatform, free (but not open source) tool for academic research and teaching.

Here is how to proceed, using Free-D:

1. Segmentation:

* load (a collection of) individual 3d stacks

* (optional for serial sections) perform a 2D registration to align image slices

* segment/reconstruct 3D contours using snakes

* segment 3D spots

2. Construct average cell:

* normalize the contours to compute a average cell, by registering/warping 3D contours/surfaces

3. Quantification:

* project each individual cell to the average one

* build density maps to analyze (cartography)

A few notes for current software version (till 10/2016):

* input file format: tiff (not able to import bioformats)

* currently results are saved in customized format, but there is an exportor to convert this format into fiji readable one

* import already generated contours is on the software's TODO list

neuTube is a collection of neuron reconstruction tools from fluorescence microscope images. It has an interactive system with a 3D viewer, which can be clicked in 3D and perform neuron tracing automatically and semi-automatically. It can automatically recognize branching points as junctions. Traced neurons can be exported to swc format, which could be imported by various software packages. neuTube has Win and Mac OS standalone executable builds and may also be installed by manual compilation. In addition, neuTube can be used as a plugin in Vaa3D.

Localization-based super-resolution techniques open the door to unprecedented analysis of molecular organization. This task often involves complex image processing adapted to the specific topology and quality of the image to be analyzed. SR-Tesseler is an open-source segmentation software using Voronoï tessellation constructed from the coordinates of localized molecules. It allows precise, robust and automatic quantification of protein organization at different scales, from the cellular level down to clusters of a few fluorescent markers. SR-Tesseler is insensitive to cell shape, molecular organization, background and noise, allowing comparing efficiently different biological conditions in a non-biased manner, and perform quantifications on various proteins and cell types. SR-Tesseler software comes with a very simple and intuitive graphical user interface, providing direct visual feedback of the results and is freely available under GPLv3 license.