[MINC-users] the future of MINC and MINC support - need 2 min.

[Alex Zijdenbos]

Hi Louis,

YES, using MINC, will continue to do so

Are you able to elaborate on the L/R flipping issue? What the root cause
is, what scanners/s/w version may be affected, etc? We have gone through a
lot of Siemens data from different sites, cross-referencing it with a
conversion via NifTI, and haven't found any unexpected flips (I should note
that that is with our (Biospective in-house) version of dcm2mnc, that has
diverged from the "standard" one).

-- A

On Mon, May 26, 2025 at 10:23 AM Louis Collins, Mr <louis.collins at mcgill.ca>
wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I’m sending this email to bic-annouce, minc-users and minc-developers.
> Forgive me if you get multiple similar copies, each one has different
> questions addressed to the specific mailing list audience.
>
> Along with cutting edge neuro-imaging devices, the MINC software tools are
> an integral part of the success that have enabled the BIC to achieve
> world-wide recognition in neuroscience.  Unfortunately, a recent DICOM to
> MINC conversion issue (left-right flipping in MRI) has called into question
> the future of minc.
>
> The minc file format, API, and all image analysis pipelines have been
> supported mostly on a volunteer basis for at least the past decade.  While
> I’ve never had grants to support minc directly, I’ve used funds from other
> projects to support Vlad’s salary as he spent half his time to work on minc
> tools as we needed them in my lab.  We’ve also invested a lot of time (and
> $$) fixing bugs and assisting other groups with their processing needs.
> Mallar, Jason, Andrew and others have done the same.  At this time, my
> grants are running out, and I can no longer afford to support minc as we’ve
> done in the past. for a few months last fall, Julien provided some
> financial help (20% of an FTE), but that aid ended early this year.
>
> I learned about this new dcm2mnc issue last week that affects all those
> that use Seimens MRI data in minc format acquired in the past few months.
>
> This issue calls into the question the sufficiency of volunteer MNC
> support. Some have suggested to drop MINC altogether and to use other tools
> based on nifti/BIDS.  I believe that MINC support requires specific funding.
>
>
> For everyone in the minc-users list,  I am curious to know how many people
> are using MINC at present.
>
> Please respond with “YES - I’m using MINC” (or "no, not using MINC”).
> If YES, please also say if you’d like to continue using minc.
> If no, would you use minc if it was supported/documented?
>
> Feel free to reply all in this mailing list, or directly to me by email.
>
> my goal is to get a count of those using minc tools as soon as possible.
> there is a meeting this week to discuss the future of minc.
>
> thanks.
>
> -Louis
> _______________________________________________
> MINC-users at bic.mni.mcgill.ca
> https://mailman.bic.mni.mcgill.ca/mailman/listinfo/minc-users
>
>