Embryonic mouse neural tubes, growing and folding.
A new microscope has given scientists this front-row view of a living mouse embryo developing in glorious 4D.{%recommended 1745%}
Over the critical first 48 hours they were able to watch the gut form and the heart start to beat, following every embryonic cell and pinpointing where it went and what genes it turned on.
As well as technically clever and visually exciting, the show was important because it took the US researchers inside a mammal. Until now, the best views of living embryos have come from fish and flies.
The grunt work is done by a suite of algorithms that track the embryo’s position and size, map how a light sheet moves through the sample then figure out how to get the best-looking images.
The result is “literally a cellular-resolution building plan of the entire mouse”, says Philipp Keller, a physicist and biologist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Virginia, US.
He and his colleagues reported their project in the journal Cell, and they’re making the microscope, computational tools and imaging data publicly available free.
Originally published by Cosmos as Watch: an embryo on show
Nick Carne
Nick Carne is the editor of Cosmos Online and editorial manager for The Royal Institution of Australia.
Read science facts, not fiction...
There’s never been a more important time to explain the facts, cherish evidence-based knowledge and to showcase the latest scientific, technological and engineering breakthroughs. Cosmos is published by The Royal Institution of Australia, a charity dedicated to connecting people with the world of science. Financial contributions, however big or small, help us provide access to trusted science information at a time when the world needs it most. Please support us by making a donation or purchasing a subscription today.
