Combining neuroscience and chemical engineering, researchers at Stanford University have developed a process that renders a mouse brain transparent. The brain remains whole — not sliced or sectioned in any way — with its three-dimensional complexity of fine wiring and molecular structures completely intact and able to be measured and probed at will with visible light and chemicals.
Artist's conception of the CRISPR system in action, with the guide RNA (red) leading a protein to a specific site in the genomic DNA (blue) where it makes a cut. Image Credit: Stephen Dixon and Feng Zhang
With the development of an “integrated chemical chip,” a doctoral student in Organic Electronics at Sweden’s Linköping University has created the basis for an entirely new circuit technology based on the transmission of ions and molecules.
Culture of rat brain cells stained with antibody to (green), Neurofilament (red) and DNA (blue)
Computational neuroscience reflects the possibilitv of generating theories of brain function in terms of the information-processing properties of structures that make up nervous systems.