California Institute of Technology scientists developed a chemical technique to make dead mice transparent to help researchers see how disease spreads through the body, map the nervous system, and other projects.
"Our methodology has the potential to accelerate any scientific endeavor that would benefit from whole-organism mapping, including the study of how peripheral nerves and organs can profoundly affect cognition and mental processing, and vice versa," says Caltech researcher Vivian Gradinaru.
"Our easy-to-use tissue clearing protocols, which employ readily available and cost-effective reagents and equipment, will make the subcellular interrogation of large tissue samples an accessible undertaking within the broader research and clinical communities."
