#tissue clearing

Into the Deepbone

Human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (HMSC) can differentiate into any of the many bone marrow-derived cells (except the red and white blood cells) and are of great interest to researchers in many biomedical fields, including tissue regeneration, cancer and stem cell therapies. Now, thanks to a new bone tissue clearing approach called DeepBone, they can be studied and mapped in 3D within their natural bone marrow environment (components of which can also be characterised) – this study compares HMSC in the marrow of the young and aged

Read the published research article here

Video from work by Nelson Tsz Long Chu and colleagues

Centre for Bone and Arthritis Research, Institute of Medicine at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, April 2026

Dive into Liver

Here, human liver tissue with and without fibrosis has been reconstructed at cell level in 3D by a combination of fluorescent tagging of cell types tissue clearing, microscopy, and computational software. Insights for understanding liver disease and how to treat it

Read the published research article here

Video from work by Wesley B. Fabyan & Chelsea L. Fortin, and colleagues

Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Published in Science Advances, February 2026

Clear Headed

Biologists usually have a 'bucket list' – details they want to know, hidden in delicate processes too fast or life-threatening to observe, or structures too small to see at all. Microscopy usually requires a compromise between the big picture and looking in detail. Here a new type of light sheet microscopy, called ExA-SPIM, allows scientists to see in high resolution over a wide area in a mouse’s brain. Zooming through the brain, we can see spindly neurons stretching out. The clarity of the image is thanks in part to techniques to first clear away opaque chemicals like fats, then to ‘expand’ the brain tissue – swelling it with salty liquid so its structures are easier to image. Fusing together multiple large image 'tiles' like this one allows the scientists to follow neurons running in all directions through the brain tissue, giving them a clearer picture of the connections inside.

Written by John Ankers

Image from work by Adam Glaser and Jayaram Chandrashekar, and colleagues

Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics, Seattle, WA, USA

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, June 2025

Cleared to Attack

Using techniques such as single-cell RNA sequencing and high-resolution imaging with tissue clearing, this study in mice identifies a nerve subset called vagal sensory neurons (shown in magenta in this cleared mouse heart) that increase ventricular innervation in the heart after a heart attack (myocardial infarction). These neurons are revealed as part of a heart-brain neuroimmune loop that presents possible targets for MI therapies

Read the published research article here

Still from video from work by Saurabh Yadav and Van K. Ninh, and colleagues

Department of Neurobiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Cell, January 2026

Keeping Gum

Revealing the roles of cells bearing the proteins NFATc1 and PDGFRα in the maintenance and regeneration of dental and surrounding tissues by tracing cells in live mice, imaging 'cleared' tissue and 3D image reconstruction techniques. Insights for tissue regeneration treatments

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Xue Yang and colleagues

State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases & National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, China

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife (reviewed preprint), September 2024

Nervous Revelations

Tissue samples from biopsies or post-mortem can be stored long-term by 'fixing' in formalin but this treatment ruins the potential for many kinds of subsequent analyses. Here, visualising neurons and their circuitry in fixed brain samples is made possible using a tissue clearing and molecular labelling techniques

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Ya-Hui Lin and colleagues

Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, May 2024

Getting A Head

3D imaging combined with tissue clearing and immunostaining reveals the development of the head and its organs as a human embryo grows – insight into understanding craniofacial defects and neurological disorders, and how to diagnose and treat them

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Raphael Blain and colleagues

Sorbonne Université, INSERM, CNRS, Institut de la Vision, Paris, France

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Published in Cell, December 2023

Enter wildDISCO World

Immunofluorescence imaging of rare cells or entire networks such as the nervous or immune system in a whole mouse made possible using a new approach called wildDISCO

Read the published research paper here

Video from work by Hongcheng Mai and Jie Luo, and colleagues

Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Helmholtz Center Munich, Neuherberg, Germany

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Biotechnology, July 2023