If I Only Had A "See-Through" Brain!!

What will they think of next.  An article just published online in the journal Nature describes a revolutionary technique for exploring the intricate organization  of the brain.  Researchers at Stanford University have developed a means to make brain's transparent, yet retain their cellular organization.  Although the  brain is transparent, neurons and glia can be selectively stained and imaged in situ, in three-dimensions, using selective fluorescent markers for various types of cells, neurotransmitters, neurotransmitter receptors, or other cellular constituents.

The technique was developed for imaging the brains of mice, but is applicable to other species including humans.  Preliminary work reported in Nature, identified evidence of unusual patterns of connectivity with neural pathways a brain obtained from a boy that had been diagnosed with autism.


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Reference

• Chung et al. (2013). Structural and molecular interrogation of intact biological systems. Nature, http//dx.doi.orghttp//dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12107; 2013.