Free and open source

This is the source code and data page of a distributed parallel algorithm 2683 for segmentation of large fluorescence microscopy images.

Image-processing algorithms developed at the MOSAIC Group for fluorescence microscopy. Tools included:

• 2D/3D single-particle tracking tool which can be used to track bright spots in 2D/3D movies over time.
• Optimal filament segmentation of 2D images. 
• Curvature filters for image filtering, denoising, and restoration. 
• Image naturalization for image enhancement based on gradient statistics of natural-scence images. 
• Tool for automatically send and distribute jobs on clusters and get back the results.
• Multi-region image segmentation of 2D and 3D images without needing to know the number of regions beforehand. 
• Squassh for globally optimal segmentation of piecewise constant regions in 2D and 3D images and for object-based co-localization analysis. 
• Tool for inferring spatial interactions between patterns of objects in images or between coordinates read from a file.
• Tool for robust, histogram-based background subtraction well suited to correct for inhomogeneous illumination artifacts.
• A tool to estimate the Point-Spread Function of the microscopy out of 2D fluorescence images.
• A tool to measure the 3D Point-Spread Function of a confocal microscope from an image stack.
• Addition of synthetic Poisson-distributed noise to an image in order to simulate shot noise of various signal-to-noise ratios. 
• Convolution of an image with a Bessel function in order to simulate imaging with a microscope. 
• A utility to detect bright spots in images and estimate their center. 
• A utility to create manual segmentations to be used as ground truth to test and benchmark automatic segmentation algorithms.
• A tool for replacing one color in an image with another color.

Super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging (SOFI) achieves 3D super-resolution by computing temporal cumulants or spatio-temporal cross-cumulants of stochastically blinking fluorophores. In contrast to localization microscopy, SOFI is compatible with weakly emitting fluorophores and a wider range of blinking conditions. Balanced SOFI analyses several cumulant orders for extracting molecular parameter maps, such as the bright and dark state lifetimes, the concentration and the brightness distributions of fluorophores within biological samples. In combination with a deconvolution of the cumulant images, the estimated parameter maps proved useful to balance the image contrast and to linearize the brightness and blinking response. Thereby, the image quality and the resolution were improved significantly.

SuReSim (Super Resolution Simulation) is an open-source simulation software for Single Molecule Localization Microscopy (SMLM). The workflow of the SuReSim algorithm starts from a ground truth structure and lets the user choose to either directly simulate 3D localizations or to create simulated *.tiff-stacks that the user can analyze with any given SMLM reconstruction software. A 3D structure of any geometry, either taken from electron microscopy, designed de-novo from assumptions or known structural facts, is fluorophore-labeled in silico. A defined set of parameters is used to calculate and visualize the 3D localizations of the corresponding labels. The software package is accompanied with a library of model structures that can be imported and simulated. Users manual with tutorial provided.

ThunderSTORM is an open-source, interactive, and modular plug-in for ImageJ designed for automated processing, analysis, and visualization of data acquired by single molecule localization microscopy methods such as PALM and STORM. Our philosophy in developing ThunderSTORM has been to offer an extensive collection of processing and post-processing methods so that users can easily adapt the process of analysis to their data.