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  Watching brain cells in action

  http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=1058
  57 days ago in Emerging Technology Trends | ZDNet.com · Authority: 350

  Watching brain cells in action Posted by Roland Piquepaille @ 10:18 am Categories: Health & Medicine, Science & Nature Tags: Microscope, Mouse, Imaging, Muscle, Stanford University Team, Sarcomeres, Mice, Document Management, Hardware, Peripherals A Stanford University team has developed a microscope weighing only 1.1 grams. It is so small that it can be mounted to the head of a freely moving mouse to watch its brain cell activity. According to what said the lead researcher to New Scientist, ‘A lot of work has been done using brain slices, or anaesthetised animals — even using animals that are awake but restrained. But so far it has been impossible to image cellular-level activity in a freely moving mouse.’ Not anymore. And as mice are the ‘preferred’ animals in medical labs, this new kind of microscope could lead to new ways to study human diseases. But read more… You can see above several images related to this minimally invasive microendoscopy system which has also been used to watch muscles in action. “a, Schematic of the laser-scanning imaging system used to visualize sarcomeres in live subjects. A microscope objective focuses ultrashort pulsed laser illumination onto the face of a gradient refractive index microendoscope. The microendoscope demagnifies and refocuses the laser beam within the muscle and returns emitted light signals, which reflect off a dichroic mirror before detection by a photomultiplier tube (PMT). b, Shown are the three sizes of microendoscopes used: 1,000, 500 and 350 mm in diameter. c, 350-mmdiameter microendoscope clad in stainless steel for minimally invasive imaging in the arm of a human subject. Scale bars are 1 cm.” (Credit: Schnitzer et al., Stanford University) This research work has been led by Mark Schnitzer, an assistant professor of biology at Stanford University with the help of the members of his research group. In this page, Schnitzer describes his fiber optic fluorescence microendoscopy project. Read the rest of this entry »
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  Watching brain cells in action

  http://www.primidi.com/2008/10/08.html#a2321
  57 days ago in Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends · Authority: 129

  A Stanford University team has developed a microscope weighing only 1.1 grams. It is so small that it can be mounted to the head of a freely moving mouse to watch its brain cell activity. According to what said the lead researcher to New Scientist, 'A lot of work has been done using brain slices, or anaesthetised animals -- even using animals that are awake but restrained. But so far it has been impossible to image cellular-level activity in a freely moving mouse.' Not anymore. And as mice are the 'preferred' animals in medical labs, this new kind of microscope could lead to new ways to study human diseases. But read more...
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  Mini microscope captures live brain-cell action

  http://www.bubblejam.net/bubble_sandwich/2008/10/mini_micros...
  59 days ago in Bubble Sandwich · Authority: 1

  Colin Barras NewScientist A microscope small enough to be mounted to the head of a freely moving mouse makes it possible to watch brain cell activity and whole animal behaviour simultaneously in mice. The device offers researchers a new way to study of human diseases using transgenic mice. Since researchers created the first transgenic mice in the 1980s, the mouse has become the lab animal of choice for medical research. There are now mouse "models" for a wide range of human genetic disorders, from Parkinson's to asthma. read full story

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