Welcome to the Duke Center for In Vivo Microscopy (CIVM).

The CIVM has two missions: our Small Animal Imaging Laboratory (SAIL) and Duke Imaging Innovation Laboratory (DIIL). At the heart of both is the development of innovative imaging tools and their application to important biomedical questions. We invite you to learn more here today and to contact us with questions or requests.

Duke PRATT School of Engineering

Small Animal Imaging Laboratory (SAIL)

CIVM, in collaboration with the Duke Pratt School of Engineering, provides state of the art imaging services for preclinical and basic science studies for the entire university. Featured equipment includes the 7T Bruker MRI System and the MILabs MicroSPECT System. Learn More

Duke Radiology

Duke Imaging Innovation Laboratory (DIIL)

With DIIL, CIVM is developing the next generation of imaging tools, leveraging the engineering expertise at Duke to push the technical boundaries of multimodal imaging. Featured equipment includes the 7 T Agilent MRI System and the 9.4T MRI System System. Learn More

Duke Radiology

Request a Project Collaboration

All project requests start here with your review of CIVM resources and rates and your submission of our online Project Request Form, either for SAIL or for DIIL. You'll be asked to provide the details of your project, including imaging needs, specific aims, timing and funding. Learn more and begin the project request form by choosing either SAIL or DIIL.

Recent News

NeuroImage Vol No 255 chooses figure from Stephanie Crater's Paper for July Cover!

The cover in this issue of NeuroImage (Volume No 255) shows a representative image from a recent study by Wang et al… Read More

NeuroImage chooses figure from Rick Laoprasert's Paper for November Cover!
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Recent Publications

Resolution and b value dependent structural connectome in ex vivo mouse brain

Stephanie Crater, Surendra Maharjan, Yi Qi, Qi Zhao, Gary Cofer, James C. Cook, G. Allan Johnson, Nian Wang,
Resolution and b value dependent structural connectome in ex vivo mouse brain, NeuroImage, Volume 255, 2022, 119199, ISSN 1053-8119, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119199.

A multicontrast MR atlas of the Wistar rat brain

Johnson GA, Laoprasert R, Anderson RJ, Cofer G, Cook J, Pratson F, White LE. A multicontrast MR atlas of the Wistar rat brain. Neuroimage. 2021 Nov 15;242:118470. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118470. Epub 2021 Aug 12. PMID: 34391877. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811921007436

Ex Vivo MR Histology and Cytometric Feature Mapping Connect Three-dimensional in Vivo MR Images to Two-dimensional Histopathologic Images of Murine Sarcomas

Blocker SJ, Cook J, Mowery YM, Everitt JI, Qi Y, Hornburg KJ, Cofer GP, Zapata F, Bassil AM, Badea CT, Kirsch DG, Johnson GA. Ex Vivo MR Histology and Cytometric Feature Mapping Connect Three-dimensional in Vivo MR Images to Two-dimensional Histopathologic Images of Murine Sarcomas. Radiol Imaging Cancer. 2021 May;3(3):e200103. doi: 10.1148/rycan.2021200103. PMID: 34018846; PMCID: PMC8183263. https://doi.org/10.1148/rycan.2021200103

A high-resolution interactive atlas of the human brainstem using magnetic resonance imaging

Conventional atlases of the human brainstem are limited by the inflexible, sparsely-sampled, two-dimensional nature of histology, or the low spatial resolution of conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Postmortem high-resolution MRI circumvents the challenges associated with both modalities. A single human brainstem specimen extending from the rostral diencephalon through the caudal medulla was prepared for imaging after the brain was removed from a 65-year-old male within 24 h of death. The specimen was formalin-fixed for two weeks, then rehydrated and placed in a custom-made MRI compatible tube and immersed in liquid fluorocarbon. MRI was performed in a 7-Tesla scanner with 120 unique diffusion directions. Acquisition time for anatomic and diffusion images were 14 h and 208 h, respectively. Segmentation was performed manually. Deterministic fiber tractography was done using strategically chosen regions of interest and avoidance, with manual editing using expert knowledge of human neuroanatomy. Anatomic and diffusion images were rendered with isotropic resolutions of 50 μm and 200 μm, respectively. Ninety different structures were segmented and labeled, and 11 different fiber bundles were rendered with tractography. The complete atlas is available online for interactive use [insert link to https://civmvoxport.vm.duke.edu/voxbase/login.php?return_url=%2Fvoxbase%2F]. This atlas presents multiple contrasting datasets and selected tract reconstruction with unprecedented resolution for MR imaging of the human brainstem. There are immediate applications in neuroanatomical education, with the potential to serve future applications for neuroanatomical research and enhanced neurosurgical planning through “safe” zones of entry into the human brainstem.   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118135

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