If You Can't See It, Stretch It -Twice

Editor's Pics Apr 19, 2017

MIT researchers have developed a way to make extremely high-resolution images of tissue samples, at a fraction of the cost of other techniques that offer similar resolution. CREDIT: Boyden et al, MIT.

By expanding brain tissue twice, researchers were able to obtain high-resolution images of neurons in the hippocampus.

Read: High-resolution with conventional microscopes

The MIT researchers embed the tissue in a polyacrylate gel and expand it, twice. using their iterative expansion method, the researchers are able to blow tiny structures up to 100-times their original size, making them visible using conventional confocal microscopes. This approach is more accessible than using expensive high-resolution imaging methods currently used to investigate cellular structures and protein localization.