See-through brains (4 min)

 

 

This is a video that Kevin highlighted in his stream.  It is 9 years old. Of course, the subjects of this procedure are dead. You can’t do this on a living subject.

Scientists have come up with a way to make whole brains transparent, so they can be labelled with molecular markers and imaged using a light microscope. The technique, called CLARITY, enabled its creators to produce the detailed 3D visualisations you see in this video. It works in mouse brains and human brains; here the team use it to look into the brain of a 7-year-old boy who had autism. Original research paper: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12107 Nature News story: http://www.nature.com/news/see-throug...

 

The lipids are removed with using a solution of a hydrogel monomer and formaldehyde solution as the first step. Heat is then added to the mix so that the hydrogel monomers are able to polymerize therefore keeping the integrity of the structure to the brain. Then, SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate) is added to break the lipids apart and remove them from the brain. ETC (Electrophoretic Tissue Clearing) is then used t separate the lipids from the rest of the tissue based on charge/mass.