Scientists have developed a miniature fluorescence microscope small enough to implant in the head of a living mouse and gather images from its brain without hindering its movement. The 1.9-gram, 2.4-cubic-centimetre device is described today in Nature Methods1. The device has already yielded results. The authors, led by applied physicist Mark Schnitzer and electrical engineer
In vivo imaging scientists broadcast from inside the brains of moving animals. A message on an Alzheimer’s disease online board seeks advice about a 75-year-old aunt who incessantly yells at her 80-year-old husband without whom she cannot move about. The aunt has stopped eating and refuses a doctor’s visit. Behavioral changes in patients with Alzheimer’s
A readily portable miniature microscope weighing less than 2 grams and tiny enough to balance on your fingertip has been developed by Stanford University researchers. The scope is designed to see fluorescent markers, such as dyes, commonly used by medical and biological researchers studying the brains of mice. The new device has no moving parts
Researchers package a fluorescence microscope—including the light and camera—that can image the brain of a freely moving mouse. THE DEVICE: Weighing in at just 1.9 grams, this fluorescence microscope is designed for portability—not just in a pocket, but mounted on the head of a mouse freely able to move around. The scope’s housing, including the
An inexpensive microscope about the size of a gumdrop could allow scientists to peer into the inner workings of living, moving animals much more easily. The device is small and light enough—it weighs less than two grams—to be mounted atop a rodent’s head, where it can capture the activity of up to 200 individual brain
Mice are the mainstay of modern biomedical research, but the ability to image their brain cells while they’re scampering around is no easy task. Scientists at Stanford University have created a powerful mini-microscope that can fit on a mouse head and stay there without interfering with the mouse’s actions. “It’s like a little high-tech hat,”
