Stereologer® Software

Manual, Semi-Automatic and Fully Automatic Data Collection in Stereologer

Manual Stereology. Since its introduction in the mid-1990s, the Stereologer software and system support users to manually collect stereology data based on number of “clicks” over objects and structures of interest.

Digital Stereology™ In 2017, SRC introduced the Digital Stereology concept that supports the automatic capture and analysis of z-axis stacks of digital images, i.e., disector stacks (Mouton et al., 2017). Rather than just saving number of clicks from a stereology analysis, this first-in-industry innovation creates and saves a digital record of images and cells counted for subsequent review, archiving, reports, etc. Time to capture 100 to 150 stacks is 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the number of stained tissue sections.

Two options for stereology analysis of digital images using unbiased methods.

1
“Slice-wise” manual counts. The user scrolls through each 3D stack up/down arrows on the keyboard while clicking on objects of interest. Requires ∼ 30 to 45 minutes for typical analysis of object number or fiber length on ∼ 100 to 150 3D stacks.
2
Digital Videos. Each 3D stack of digital images is automatically converted into a video. Data collection involves clicking on objects or linear features of interest while observing videos (video speed controlled by the user). Requires ∼ 15-20 minutes for typical analysis of object number or fiber length on ∼ 100 to 150 videos.
Revised Probe montage

Automatic Stereology (Fully Automatic Stereology Technology, FAST®)

SRC Biosciences is funded by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop automatic analysis of digital images from a range of microscopes, including brightfield, fluorescent, confocal, TEM.

The goal of this project is to accelerate the collection of accurate, precise and efficient data using unbiased stereology methods.

Using properly sampled digital images from stained tissues, this software will allow manual, semi-automatic and fully automatic stereology analysis using the same hardware components as the fully manual Stereologer system, e.g., microscope equipped with motorized XYZ stage, digital imaging, computer with Windows 10 OS.

During development, beta versions of FAST software is available at no cost to Stereologer customers. On release of the full version (expected Fall 2021), existing Stereologer customers will have the option to purchase FAST at a 30% discount.

radiology image software