Friday, November 09, 2007

Adding Color Untangles the Brain’s Gray Secrets - New York Times


Adding Color Untangles the Brain’s Gray Secrets - New York Times: "The scientists bred mice so their brain cells had genetic inserts containing genes for three colors of fluorescent protein, red, green and blue. They prompted each insert to randomly express one color, using a genetic trigger. Because there were multiple copies of the three-gene insert in each cell, the cell itself expressed a random mixture of the three colors, some 90 shades in all. What emerged was a kind of beaded rainbow belt of neurons, with the fluorescent glow radiating out through each cell’s neural branches. The researchers called the technique “Brainbow.”"

No comments: