X-ray vision achieved by rendering brain samples transparent

Researchers in Japan have devised a method for rendering brain tissue transparent, to help biologists gather information about the three-dimensional structure of the brain and processes affecting it, such as the formation of protein ‘plaques’ associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Known as optical clearing, the technique has ben a challenge in the past because of the difficulty of changing the optical qualities of the tissue without damaging it.

“While Superman’s x-ray vision is only the stuff of comics, our method, called ScaleS, is a real and practical way to see through brain and body tissue,” said lead researcher Atsushi Miyawaki of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute near Tokyo.

Miyawaki’s team has been working on the project since 2011, when they discovered that an aqueous solution of urea was promising for brain tissue optical clearing, but they ran into the tissue damage problem. They have now refined the technique by using a solution which also contains the sugar alcohol sorbitol, as they explain in Nature Neuroscience.