A new reagent makes living brains transparent for deeper, non-invasive imaging

Making a living brain transparent and watching its neurons fire without disturbing their function—sounds like science fiction, doesn't it? Yet the solution may already exist within our own bodies. In a paper published in Nature Methods, a research team led by Kyushu University introduces a new reagent called SeeDB-Live.

“This is the first time tissue clearing has been achieved without altering its biology,” says Takeshi Imai, professor at Kyushu University’s Faculty of Medical Sciences and the study’s senior author.

“SeeDB-Live can pave the way for deep-tissue live imaging, both ex vivo and in vivo,” adds the study’s first author, Assistant Professor Shigenori Inagaki of the same faculty.

Sign up for Blog Updates