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Understanding of the sequelae of cerebral microvascular injury has been hampered by a lack of animal models to enable precise localization of injury. In this issue, Nishimura et al. describe a stroke model that couples two-photon laser-scanning mapping of the cerebral cortex with femtosecond laser technology to produce three distinct microvascular injuries characterized by hemorrhage, vessel leakage or vessel occlusion.
Automation has increased the speed of DNA sequencing by established methods by several orders of magnitude. Now, commercial and academic efforts to develop alternative sequencing technologies are trying to push the envelope even further. Laura Bonetta reports.
Pulsed electrical fields can be used to introduce DNA into a wide variety of animal cells1,2. Electroporation works well with cell lines that are refractive to other techniques, such as calcium phosphate–DNA coprecipitation. But as with other transfection methods, the optimal conditions for electroporation of untested cell lines must be determined experimentally.