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Technique lets scientists see brain in full color
Nov. 6, 2007
Courtesy Nature
and World Science staff
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Multicolor labeling of
nerve cells in a 'Brainbow' transgenic mouse. The image shows
neurons, or nerve cells, of the hippocampus, a brain
structure central to memory formation.
(Credit: Confocal microscopy by Jean Livet)
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With a combination of genetic tricks and fancy proteins, researchers have colored hundreds of individual cells
in a mouse brain with distinctive hues.
This provides a key step towards understanding how the nervous system works, both normally and in diseased brains, scientists said.
The research, published in the Oct. 31 issue of the research journal
Nature, takes brain mapping to a new level, and results in the labelling of nerve cells with approximately 90 different
colour combinations.
Over a hundred years ago, the Spanish physician Ramon Y Cajal opened the gates to modern neuroscience with a technique that colors nerve cells so their structure is clearly visible, called Golgi staining. But it uses only one color, and until now it has remained difficult to map out individual cells in each brain circuit.
In the new research, Jeff Lichtman of Harvard University in Massachusetts and colleagues developed a technicolor version of Golgi staining, called “Brainbow,” that they said allows more detailed reconstructions of brain circuits.
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With a combination of genetic tricks and fancy proteins, researchers have colourfully colored hundreds of individual brain cells with distinctive hues. This provides a key step towards understanding how the nervous system works, both normally and in diseased brains, scientists said.
The research, published in the Oct. 31 issue of the research journal Nature, takes brain mapping to a new level, and results in the labelling of nerve cells with approximately 90 different colour combinations.
Over a hundred years ago, the Spanish physician Ramon Y Cajal opened the gates to modern neuroscience with a technique that colors nerve cells so their structure is clearly visible, called Golgi staining. But it uses only one color, and until now it has remained difficult to map out individual cells in each brain circuit.
In the new research, Jeff Lichtman of Harvard University in Massachusetts and colleagues developed a technicolor version of Golgi staining, called “Brainbow,” that they said allows more detailed reconstructions of brain circuits.
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