JAPAN SCIENTISTS MAKE SEE-THROUGH MICE (STA BREAKING NEWS and ARCHIVES)

by STANews , Friday, November 07, 2014, 12:16

Japan - Invisibility may still be the stuff of fictional works like Harry Potter, but researchers in Japan have developed a way to make mice almost totally transparent.

Using a method that almost completely removes colour from tissue -- and kills the mouse in the process -- researchers say they can now examine individual organs or even whole bodies without slicing into them, offering a "bigger picture" view of the problems they are working on.

The techniques will give scientists a "new understanding of the 3D structure of organs and how certain genes are expressed in various tissues," said Kazuki Tainaka, the lead author of a research paper published in the US-based Cell magazine.

"We were very surprised that the entire body of infant and adult mice could be made nearly transparent," he said in a statement issued by Japanese research institute RIKEN and its collaborators

MORE...

http://www.centnews.com/Tech/Japan-scientists-make-see-through-mice/S-2014-11-06/102488.html