About MBF Bioscience
A Rich History of Creating the Future of Bioscience
We engineer quantitative imaging and visualization solutions for stereology, neuron reconstruction, vascular analysis, c. elegans behavior analysis and medical education - with the world’s most advanced microscope systems - to empower your research. Our scientists and development team are actively engaged with leading researchers, and constantly work to refine our products based on state-of-the-art scientific advancements.
Whether you are interested in design-based stereology, neuron reconstruction, brain mapping, whole brain imaging, light sheet microscopy, whole slide imaging, worm tracking, or vascular analysis, you can be confident that our products include the most current protocols available to keep you on the cutting edge with accurate results.
We were founded as MicroBrightField, in 1988, by the father and son team of Edmund and Jack Glaser, one a neuroscientist and the other a computer scientist. We changed our name to MBF Bioscience in 2005 to reflect the expansion of our products and services to new microscopy techniques in all fields of biological research and education. While we continue to specialize in neuroscience research, our products are also used extensively in cancer, cardiac, pulmonary, kidney, stem cell, and toxicology research.
Our commitment to innovative products and unrivaled customer support has gained high praise from distinguished scientists who use our products all over the world, and resulted in MBF expanding into a global business with offices in North America, Europe, Japan, and China. Our flagship products Stereo Investigator® and Neurolucida® are the most widely-used analysis systems of their kind.
Our software allows you to easily obtain accurate quantitative measurements from microscope images, whether from brightfield, wide field fluorescence, light sheet, 2 photon or laser-scanning confocal microscopes, and we back up our products with a support team that is world-renowned for its dedication to keeping customers productive.
Recognition
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In May 2013 MBF Bioscience received the prestigious Tibbetts Award at a ceremony conducted at the White House in Washington, D.C. The Tibbetts Award is presented annually by the U.S. Small Business Administration to companies who are beacons of promise and models of excellence in high technology. |
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In April 2020, we were featured among the 50 innovative companies across the US who are named by the NIH SBIR’s Small Business Success Stories. We were also featured as a success story in 2018. The SBIR grant has helped fund many of our software developments and hardware innovations. |
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In 2007, our president, Jack Glaser, received the United States Small Business Administration’s Vermont Small Business Person of the Year award. This award represented Jack’s outstanding leadership relating to the company’s staying power, growth, sales, innovation, and community contributions. |
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We were honored with the distinction of being named one of the Best Places to Work in Vermont in 2007 and respectively received in 2009 and 2010 as well. This award honors the employers who strive to create better workplaces for their employees, which in turn benefits the state’s economy. |
A History of Innovation
MBF Bioscience has deep roots in the scientific research community, originating in laboratories in Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland that go back before MBF Bioscience’s official founding in 1988 by Dr. Edmund Glaser and Jack Glaser.
From its inception, MBF Bioscience has been a pioneer in developing microscope-based scientific research systems. Over the years, we've helped researchers publish more than 16,000 peer-reviewed papers in journals. Our software is continually developed through collaboration with scientists around the world and with support from prestigious institutions, such as the National Institute of Health.
MBF Bioscience was founded for the advancement of science based on a philosophy of service to the research community through technical innovation and dedicated customer support.
1962Pioneering Work16 years before the founding of MBF Bioscience, the pioneering neuroscience researchers Dr. Edmund Glaser, MBF co-founder, and his colleague, Dr. Hendrik Van Der Loos create the first ever computerized microscope to help understand the brain.
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1963The Origins of NeurolucidaThe paper authored by Dr. Edmund Glaser and Dr. Hendrik Van Der Loos appears in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering titled “A semi quantitative computer-microscope for the analysis of neuronal morphometry.” This paper describes the predecessor to Neurolucida, software that went on to become the most cited neuron tracing program in the world with over 6,000 citations in the next half century.
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1988NeurolucidaNeurolucida, the culmination of over 25 years of pioneering experience in neuroimaging by the father and son team of Dr. Edmund Glaser and Jack Glaser, is invented. This system remains the gold standard for neuron tracing. It has been continuously developed for over 30 years. Neurolucida, is the most widely used Neuron Tracing and Brain Mapping system in research laboratories throughout the world.
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1989Lucivid: Minature Microscopy Display TechnologyLucivid, an innovative microdisplay used by researchers to trace neurons, perform stereology, and stimulate retinal cells, is introduced. For neuron tracing and stereology, the Lucivid was used instead of a camera to gather data while looking directly though the microscope oculars at your specimen. It superimposes what is displayed on your computer monitor into the microscope's field-of-view so you can trace neurons and mark cells for quantification. Lucivid represents the cutting edge of computer microscopy technology, evolved from the original Image Combining Computer Microscope developed by MicroBrightField co-founder Dr. Edmund M. Glaser and Dr. Hendrik Van Der Loos.
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1995Stereo InvestigatorStereo Investigator, the leading software and system for unbiased stereology, is invented. It is still in continuous development evolving to meet the most exacting quantification needs of scientists. Stereo Investigator is now the world’s most cited stereology system with over 8,000 citations just 25 years later.
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2011Biolucida: Big Image Data Sharing and CollaborationWith three different specialized editions (Medical Education, Research, and Publisher), Biolucida allows scientists to easily view data sets that have been too voluminous and complex for traditional systems in the past to be viewed with ease. More than 100,000 medical students have learned pathology and histopathology with Biolucida. One resource, the American Association of Anatomists' Virtual Microscopy Database, holds over 3,300 different slides from 15 different institutions are available for free for professors teaching histology and histopathology.
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2012WormLab: C. elegans Analysis Made EasyWormLab, software and hardware for imaging, tracking, and analyzing C. elegans and other worms, is invented. C. elegans is used in multiple research fields such as neurodegeneration, genetics, aging, development, and even toxicology.
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2015Advancing Neuroscience with Neurolucida 360Neurolucida 360 is the premier tool for automatic neuron reconstruction used by scientists and researchers; allowing them complete their research as quickly as the speed of neuroscience. This software allows you to automatically reconstruct neurons of all sizes. Used in laboratories worldwide. Neurolucida 360 is the leading software for automatic neuron tracing.
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2015BrainMaker: Reconstructing the BrainBrainMaker, the fast and smart software that creates 3D reconstructions of the brain from serial sections of whole slide images, is created. If you mounted a section upside down, no worries, BrainMaker can fix that in the alignment process. This software can assist you with cell mapping, cytoarchitectonics and other areas that require the characterization of neuronal circuitry to create a comprehensive anatomical reference.
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2018Vesselucida 360: Automatic Reconstruction of Blood Vessels and MicrovasculatureVesselucida 360 provides groundbreaking software for researchers who are studying neuroscience, cancer, diabetes, strokes, and other conditions that affect microvasculature. Quickly segment and fully reconstruct vessels and microvasculature in 3D to obtain reliable data about both vessels and microvessels.
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2018NeuroInfo: Provides Anatomic Specificity in Brain-Wide Cellular ScreeningsPerform brain-wide analyses of cells and biochemical markers with NeuroInfo, MBF's software that uses advanced, deep learning methods. You no longer have to manually click cells or hand draw your anatomic boundaries because NeuroInfo will automatically categorize them into neuroanatomical regions.
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2019Stereo Investigator: Whole Slide Edition Provides Quantitative Analysis Using Stereology on Whole Slide ImagesThis version of Stereo Investigator is optimized for whole slide images and can be used to perform analysis of cell population numbers, fiber and capillary lengths, area and volume of anatomical regions, and more. It also integrates with our full suite of products.
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2019Stereo Investigator - Cleared Tissue Edition Creates new Gold Standard in Unbiased StereologyThis software allows researchers to use the world’s most cited stereology software to count cells and analyze fibers in intact, cleared tissue specimens imaged with light sheet or confocal microscopes.
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2019Create 3D Reconstructions of an Entire 3D Organ with TissueMakerTurn a series of serial sections imaged with whole slide scanners into a 3D reconstruction of any organ.
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2019Annotate and Delineate Tissue Structures with Tissue MapperTissue Mapper allows you to map images acquired with brightfield, confocal, two-photon, widefield fluorescence, or light sheet microscopes and with MRI and microCT. You can also quickly populate a custom anatomy list with the click of a button and automatically outline the periphery of histological sections.
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2020Elucidating and Analyzing Dendritic Spine Changes with MicroDynamix SoftwareMicroDynamix expands upon Neurolucida 360's dendritic spine detection and reconstruction by providing new functionality for dynamic in vivo analyses in repeated imaging experiments. You can automatically align the images in 3D, reconstruct dendritic branches, detect dendritic spines, and identify important metrics like length, luminance, classification, and more for accurate comparison between dendritic spines.
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2020MicroFile+ Helps Standardize and Work with Large Microscope Image FilesTo solve a problem faced across laboratories and imaging facilities, MicroFile+ was introduced to efficiently and accurately convert 2D and 3D images from almost any source and format into manageable, standardized experimental results. With this, you can organize, store, and analyze big data by converting the data into compact, easy to manage files that can be instantly loaded by MBF Bioscience technologies for analysis. Nearly any type of image can be converted to the jpeg20000 standard that efficiently stores big image data for fast retrieval, viewing, and analysis.
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2021ClearScopeIn collaboration between Columbia University and MBF Bioscience, the revolutionary light-sheet theta microscope, ClearScope, was created. With the ability to image large specimens, such as tissue slabs from human brains, and small specimens, such as whole mouse and rat brains, ClearScope uniquely meets any challenge researchers may face when conducting light-sheet microscopy research.
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We are here to help researchers and educators succeed
Every day, we continue our work of bringing you innovative products, to help you make the most of your research.
More than 1,000 labs in 45 countries trust MBF Bioscience for one simple reason.
We are dedicated to your success.
Jack R. Glaser – President and Co-Founder