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Hydrogel process developed at Stanford creates transparent brain
- robot 14y agoThis is a very impressive (yet simple) methodology in that before this there was no understanding of where certain neurons were projecting in the brain, due to the fat tissue blocking any imaging possibilities. After this many connections were uncovered that were not well understood for years.
- solox3 14y agoWhole organ decellularization is not new - we've had transparent heart ECMs for quite some time. By loading the brain here with monomers, they kill the organ, whereas you can still use the transparent heart if you reload it with cells. Similar thing, different purposes.
- JulianMorrison 14y agoYou kill it, but I have to wonder if you kill the information? it sounds like it could be used to do uploads, transhumanism style.
- swamp40 14y agoThat totally freaks me out...
- RVijay007 14y agoJust to clarify, this is not whole organ decellularization. The brain tissue, with it's neurons, glia, ECM, are left all in tact, along with their proteins, mRNA, etc. Now, instead of having to slice the brain into micrometer slices just to understand architecture at a localized level, you can understand the architecture of the whole brain's network down to the cellular level, as well as do both immunohistochemistry and in-situ hybridization to probe what kind of proteins and molecular markers are present throughout the brain. This is nothing short of a revolution in experimental technique not only for neuroscience, but all of pathology.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- hodder 14y agohttp://longbets.org/1/ http://longbets.org/1/ "Second, this phenomenon of ongoing exponential growth through a cascade of S-curves is far broader than computation. We see the same double exponential growth in a wide range of technologies, including communication technologies (wired and wireless), biological technologies (e.g., DNA base-pair sequencing), miniaturization, and of particular importance to the software of intelligence, brain reverse engineering (e.g., brain scanning, neuronal and brain region modeling)." -Kurzweil
- kragen 14y agoSummary: infuse brain with hydrogel monomers, polymerize to form permeable polymer matrix, remove lipids with vigorous electrophoresis, bingo, transparent brain.
- jmatthis 14y agoA video explaining and showing the technique: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-NMfp13Uug http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-NMfp13Uug
- ritonlajoie 14y agodo you think they are going to try to do it on a live mouse brain?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- graycat 14y agoBoy, sounds like that process would result in one super Excedrin headache number 195,455,223,391. Go ahead. I'll give up my place in line. You first!
- slacka 14y agoThis is huge for the fields of AI and Neuroscience. I would gladly donate my brain( preferably when I'm done with it) to give neuroscientists a map of the human brain. This map would be a great first step to creating strong AI.