Researchers publish MRI images of genes in action in the living brain

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Probes administered by eye drop attach to special cells during repair and cause them to have different magnetic movement, or magnetic resonance, when viewed by a magnetic resonance imaging scanner. The images generated by the MRI scanner make it possible to see these repair processes in action. This method is the first to provide scientists, clinicians, teachers, and students a means to visualize the process of brain repair in live subjects. Image courtesy Philip Liu of Harvard Medical School

Biologists have just confirmed what poets have known for centuries: eyes really are windows of the soul—or at least of the brain. In a new study published in the April 2008 print issue of The FASEB Journal, Harvard researchers describe the development of gene probe eye drops that—for the first time—make it possible to monitor and detect tissue repair in the brain of living organisms using MRI. Current methods involve a risky, invasive, and relatively slow process of penetrating the skull to extract tissue samples and then examining those samples in a laboratory.

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All News summaries for March 31, 2008