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News Release 15-002

Bigger is better for brain tissue understanding

Chemicals commonly used in diapers enable brain samples to be physically enlarged with water, allowing researchers to see nanoscale details

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Images of a mouse brain segment enlarged

Expansion microscopy enables researchers to resolve details down to about 70 nanometers, while 300 nanometers was the previous limit with a conventional microscope. Images of a mouse brain segment enlarged (right) have greater resolution than those acquired using conventional microscopy without water expansion (left).

Credit: Ed Boyden, Fei Chen, Paul Tillberg


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Mouse brain tissue in 3-D

The engineers who developed the technique, Fei Chen, Paul Tillberg and Edward Boyden at MIT, assert it offers the ability to image large, intact 3-D brain structures with nanoscale precision for the first time. Shown here is a 3-D image of mouse brain tissue taken using super-resolution microscopy, a technique that uses fluorescent molecules to resolve tiny brain details. Volume rendering of a portion of hippocampus showing neurons (shown in green)and synapses (blue and red)

Credit: Ed Boyden, Fei Chen, Paul Tillberg


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Dendrites in a mouse brain

Dendrites, treelike extensions of the neuron cell body, are the primary sites for receiving and integrating information from other neurons. This image shows a 3-D animation of dendrites in the brain of a mouse, taken using super-resolution imaging.

Credit: Ed Boyden, Fei Chen, Paul Tillberg


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Dendrites in a mouse brain

Advances in light microscopy have the potential to help researchers map and understand the brain. shown here is a 3-D animation of dendrites in a mouse brain, taken using super resolution technology.

Credit: Ed Boyden, Fei Chen, Paul Tillberg


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blurred and shapr images of a mouse brain slice as seen through a microscope

The technique, which the researchers call expansion microscopy, uses an expandable polymer and water to swell brain issue to about four and a half times its usual size, so that nanoscale structures once blurry (left) appear sharp (right) with an ordinary confocal microscope.

Credit: Ed Boyden, Fei Chen, Paul Tillberg


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cover of journal Science jan 16 2015

Bar-headed geese (Anser indicus) flying above the Tibetan Plateau. Rather than migrate high above the ground at a steady altitude, these birds fly only as high as the undulating terrain requires. This flight path keeps them in relatively dense air and reduces energy expenditure. Measures of heart rate and wingbeat frequency confirm that the birds usually fly comfortably within their physiological capabilities. See page 250.

Credit: Copyright AAAS 2015. Photo: Coke Smith


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A new technique called expansion microscopy uses chemicals commonly found in baby diapers to swell mouse brain tissue samples with water to nearly five times the usual size, with little distortion. Tiny details once blurry now appear sharply in focus with a conventional microscope. This advance gives scientists a new way to see small parts of the brain, like the intersections between neurons. The NSF-funded findings, from Ed Boyden, Fei Chen and Paul Tillberg at MIT, are in the Jan. 15 issue of the journal Science.

Credit: at the end of video