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An artistic rendering of a three-dimensional image reconstruction of the superficial mouse brain imaged through a chronic thinned-skull window. In the original image, blood vessels and neurons were visualized using fluorescent markers, and the skull was imaged using second harmonic generation. Here blood vessels are shown in pink, neuronal projections in gray and the skull in white. Original image courtesy of Andy Shih and Phil Tsai; cover by Erin Dewalt. Brief Communication p981
New tools are improving the prospects for transcranial light-based neuroscience, but better methods for using them are needed before they can reach their full potential.
A specialized supercomputer allows molecular dynamics simulations to be carried out for much longer periods of time than previously possible, yielding new insights into protein folding and dynamics.
Tracking the displacement of fluorescent beads surrounding a cell embedded in a hydrogel matrix allows quantitative measurement of the three-dimensional traction forces exerted by the cell.
Protein modules that dimerize rapidly upon exposure to light are reported. They permit light-induced control of dimerization of fused protein targets and can be manipulated with two-photon illumination for experiments in thick samples and in vivo.
A polished and reinforced thinned-skull procedure is used to create a large, chronically stable window in the skull that allows repeated imaging of cortical structures as well as optically guided physiological manipulation. It is proposed as an alternative to the craniotomy and current thinned-skull methods.
A soft X-ray microscope design using partially incoherent light and a sample holder that can be tilted permits three-dimensional ultrastructural imaging of cryopreserved adherent mammalian cells without chemical fixation.
Defined surfaces displaying heparin-binding peptides support long-term culture of multiple human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cell lines in defined media.
High-throughput sequencing of RNA fragments generated from a single-strand RNA-specific nuclease followed by novel computational analysis yields structural insights into noncoding RNA at the transcriptome level.
Readily synthesized maltose–neopentyl glycol (MNG) amphiphiles are useful reagents for stabilizing, extracting and crystallizing a variety of integral membrane proteins and have favorable properties relative to conventional detergents.
The mixture of isoforms model (MISO) assesses the confidence in estimates of the abundance of spliced exons or isoforms from paired-end RNA-seq data and detects their differential expression.
A statistical approach to quantitatively derive single and double mutant fitness from colony-based growth assays is described. The resultant SGA score permits assessment of yeast fitness and genetic interactions on the genome scale.