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Category: neuroscience – Page 6

Ultra-Bright and —Stable Red and Near-Infrared Squaraine Fluorophores for In Vivo Two-Photon Imaging

Fluorescent dyes that are bright, stable, small, and biocompatible are needed for high-sensitivity two-photon imaging, but the combination of these traits has been elusive. We identified a class of squaraine derivatives with large two-photon action cross-sections (up to 10,000 GM) at near-infrared wavelengths critical for in vivo imaging. We demonstrate the biocompatibility and stability of a red-emitting squaraine-rotaxane (SeTau-647) by imaging dye-filled neurons in vivo over 5 days, and utility for sensitive subcellular imaging by synthesizing a specific peptide-conjugate label for the synaptic protein PSD-95.

How early brain structure primes itself to learn efficiently

Vision happens when patterns of light entering the eye are converted into reliable patterns of brain activity. This reliability allows the brain to recognize the same object each time it is seen. Our brains, however, are not born with this ability; instead, we develop it through visual experience. Collaborating scientists at MPFI and the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies have recently discovered key circuit changes that lead to the maturation of reliable brain activity patterns.

Their findings, published in Neuron this week, are likely generalizable beyond vision, providing a framework to understand the brain’s unique ability to adapt and learn quickly during the earliest stages of development.

The brain is a highly organized structure. Like other , visual areas have structure to them, which scientists call modules. This modular organization consists of patches of neurons that activate together in response to specific information. For example, some patches of neurons activate together in response to seeing vertical stripes, while other patches activate when horizontal stripes are seen.

Alleviating head-mounted weight burden for neural imaging in freely-behaving rodents

Liu et al. present a remarkably simple yet clever method of mitigating the effects of head-mounted microscopes on mouse behavior: they tethered a helium balloon to the microscope device to counter its weight! A fun and useful engineering solution!

Link to article.

Scientific Reports — Alleviating head-mounted weight burden for neural imaging in freely-behaving rodents. Sci Rep 15, 19175 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-04300-0

Study finds cell memory can be more like a dimmer dial than an on/off switch

When cells are healthy, we don’t expect them to suddenly change cell types. A skin cell on your hand won’t naturally morph into a brain cell, and vice versa. That’s thanks to epigenetic memory, which enables the expression of various genes to “lock in” throughout a cell’s lifetime. Failure of this memory can lead to diseases, such as cancer.

Traditionally, scientists have thought that epigenetic memory locks genes either “on” or “off” — either fully activated or fully repressed, like a permanent Lite-Brite pattern. But MIT engineers have found that the picture has many more shades.

In a new study appearing today in Cell Genomics, the team reports that a cell’s memory is set not by on/off switching but through a more graded, dimmer-like dial of gene expression.

The universe’s first magnetic fields were ‘comparable’ to the human brain — and still linger within the ‘cosmic web’

New computer simulations suggest the first magnetic fields that emerged after the Big Bang were much weaker than expected — containing the equivalent magnetic energy of a human brain.

Spaceflight activates ‘dark genome’ in human cells, researcher says

Spaceflight makes certain human stem cells age faster, a new study has found, furthering scientists’ understanding of the potential effects of space exploration on the human body.

Stem cells are found throughout the body, and they can make more of themselves or turn into other specialized cells — including blood, brain or bone cells — for maintenance and repair.

“In space, stem cells decline in function,” said lead study author Catriona Jamieson, director of the Sanford Stem Cell Institute and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. “They actually reduce their ability to renew themselves or regenerate, and that’s an important thing to be able to know for long-term space missions.”

Newly discovered cell machinery breaks down protein aggregates into smaller pieces before ‘taking it to the trash’

A new study from Aarhus University shows that our cells’ ability to clean out old protein clumps, known as aggregates, also includes a—up till now unknown—partnership with an engine that breaks down bigger pieces into smaller before “taking it to the trash.” An important find for future treatments of diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS and Huntington’s, which are all characterized by the accumulation of protein in the brain.

Imagine you’re about to eat a big pizza. In order to not choke on it, you cut it up into slices and eat it bite by bite. And while you’re chomping down on your slices, cells inside your body are busy slicing the built-up protein clumps into pieces that are more manageable for the body’s trash system—otherwise it would clog up and malfunction.

Researchers from the department of Biomedicine at Aarhus University have just released a new study, which for the first time documents exactly how those clumps of unwanted protein get reduced to smaller pieces before being disposed of by the cells’ garbage disposal system—called autophagy. The work is published in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

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