New technique enables subcellular imaging of brain tissue 1,000X faster than other methods
In the late 19th century, the Spanish anatomist Santiago Ramón y Cajal laid the foundation for modern neuroscience with a microscope, a pen, and some paper. Applying a cell-staining technique to samples of brain tissue, he produced thousands of detailed illustrations that revealed for the first time the intricate complexity of neurons and neuronal networks. Based on his observations, Ramón y Cajal proposed that the neuron was the basic functional unit of the nervous system, a hypothesis confirmed when the electron microscope was invented in the 1950s. In the decades since, microscopy has remained central to efforts to understand the brain in health and disease. Scientists today can visualize brain tissues in remarkable detail, down to the level of the individual proteins responsible for neuronal structure and function. Despite technological advances, however, challenges remain. Attempts to achieve that level of resolution for large samples can lead to tissue damage or be...