IMOD (software)

IMOD (Image Modeler) is a free, open-source software package used for 3D reconstruction and modeling of biological structures from electron microscopy and tomography data. Developed primarily at the Boulder Laboratory for 3-Dimensional Electron Microscopy of Cells (BL3DEMC) at the University of Colorado Boulder, IMOD provides a comprehensive suite of tools for image processing, segmentation, and visualization.

IMOD's capabilities include image alignment, contrast enhancement, volume rendering, surface modeling, and object tracking. The software supports various file formats commonly used in electron microscopy, and its modular design allows users to combine different processing steps to achieve their specific research goals.

A key strength of IMOD is its extensive toolset for manual and semi-automated segmentation. Researchers can delineate cellular structures, macromolecules, and other features of interest within 3D volumes. These segmentations can then be used to create surface models, which can be visualized, analyzed, and exported for further study.

IMOD is widely used in structural biology, cell biology, and related fields to study the architecture and organization of biological systems at the nanometer scale. Its open-source nature and active user community contribute to its continued development and accessibility. The software is platform-independent, running on Linux, macOS, and Windows operating systems. The core of the IMOD package is written in C++, with a Tcl/Tk-based GUI providing user interaction.