LamHis: virtual plant anatomy histological slides

Software and digital applications Sustainable agriculture Food and agrifood technology Natural resources and territories
A tool for and expertise in creating, digitizing and interpreting histological slides, exploring and analysing plant constituents using cell imaging, and proposing high-throughput processing solutions.
Aubergine observée en micro-tomographie aux rayons X avec segmentation des graines (en bleu) et des tissus vasculaires (en vert) @Marc Lartaud, Cirad

Eggplant observed in X-ray micro-tomography with segmentation of seeds (blue) and vascular tissues (green). © Marc Lartaud, CIRAD

The PHIV platform uses the LamHis technology, based on the possibility of using scanners to digitize histological sections mounted on glass slides, and to move across the slide to discover the structure of the organ on a tissue, cell and infra-cellular level.

Features

LamHis potentially has numerous applications:

  • Conservation of slide collections,
  • Identification of fibre zones and characteristics of interest,
  • Varietal breeding,
  • Development and marketing of plant-based products: food crops, spice and aromatic plants, latex plants, fibre plants, dye plantes, etc.

Services

The CIRAD PHIV platform can provide services and/or work with you in the following fields:

  1. Digitization of existing slide stocks held by laboratories or partners, to ensure their conservation and facilitate their use
  2. Side annotation, to facilitate their use for teaching purposes
  3. Creation of slides from primary materials, including highly valuable or rare materials, and their subsequent digitization and annotation
  4. Training in histocytology and plant anatomy: annual sessions are on offer, to enable students to understand the merits of histology and pinpoint applications in various fields.

Once digitized, virtual slides can be studied on a computer using free navigation software (open-source NDPI viewer) or Zoomify.

Intellectual rights

The service relies on the PHIV team's expertise and state-of-the-art equipment.

See also