Scientists from Stanford University have developed a way to make a mouse brain transparent, marking a huge advancement in the field of brain research.
The technique involves soaking the brain in chemicals for a couple of days and provides a much clearer image for neuroscientists who can now see biological and chemical elements in the brain in a natural state.
And this breakthrough is like Christmas morning for many neuroscientists who expressed their excitement over the innovative method.
"If the entire mouse brain is transparent, that makes a very large fraction of neuroscience research much easier," said Dr. R. Clay Reid from the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle."
"This will make a lot of neuroscientists happy."
Terry Sejnowski from the Salk Institute echoed Reid's claim and added that the advancement will speed up brain research by 10 to 100 times.
"It's exactly the technique everyone's been waiting for," he said.
The findings were published online in the journal Nature and the fundamentals of the new technique are already being used in other areas of medical research, like biopsies taken for breast cancer---according to the study's author Dr. Karl Deisseroth.
And there's even more that Deisseroth and his team demonstrated as possibilities in their research.
They also demonstrated that the new method could be used on pieces of human brain tissue that have been stored for years after being removed from the body of someone with autism. The team is now working on applying the technique on a full human brain.
The see-through brain technique could also lead to other areas of research in conditions like schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. And the detail that manifests after the method is employed provides greater detail than any MRI or other brain scan can offer.
"What these guys have done is just stupendous," said Dr. Bernardo Sabatini from Harvard Medical School.
"You can just peer into the brain."
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