Transparent brains and a revolution of studying every organ and tissue

Transparent brains and a revolution of studying every organ and tissue

Deisseroth and his lab published the most detailed images of whole mouse brains that we have seen to date. To understand how this was achieved, we need look no further than a few techniques that have already been used for decades in the labs of neuroscientists and biochemists.

Deisseroth has named his technique, Clarity, for Clear Lipid-exchanged Acrylamide-hybridized Rigid Imaging/Immunostaining/In situ hybridization-compatible Tissue-hYdrogel. Other researchers have tried to clarify brains in the past by lipid extraction techniques, but they usually ended up removing almost half the protein as well. The Clarity technique removed only around 8% of it.

The Clarity technique is not a direct component of the new BRAIN Initiative, although it will radically transform neuroscience. Whole swaths of departments will lose funding and be made obsolete, while others re-purposed. The study of not just the brain, but of every organ and tissue of the body, will be revolutionized.

Link

The implications of Clarity will revolutionize present endeavors to understand how the brain operates/functions, to identify neurological diseases and ultimately to map the brain's fiendishly complicated wiring. This could take project's like the "Blue Brain Project" to a new level, simplifying the problems encountered when reverse-engineering the mammalian brain down to the molecular level and creating artifical neural networks.

I can see a lot of good coming from this research in the future. I suppose that science will make their share of mistakes when interpreting the data for a while. I hate when they do that. SnF.

Why do they always have to do testing on mice It makes me a little paranoid.

"Studying intact systems with this sort of molecular resolution and global scope — to be able to see the fine detail and the big picture at the same time — has been a major unmet goal in biology, and a goal that CLARITY begins to address"

- Deisseroth

Another interesting video on Clarity that goes into a little more detail.

Originally posted by rickymouseWhy do they always have to do testing on mice

They have a close analogous genetic and physiological match to humans and have a short lifespan/time between generations.