(Medical Xpress)—Although in vivo microscopy is a vital tool for monitoring cellular and neurophysiological processes, preparing live animals for microsurgery has traditionally had several significant limitations – namely, it takes time, requires a great deal of skill, and places constraints on what can be experimentally accomplished. Recently, however, scientists at Stanford University devised a largely automated protocol that addresses these limitations, and can be used in both optical and electrophysiological studies, by employing a highly precise pulsed excimer UV laser. The researchers not only used fruit flies as a model, but also demonstrate their technique in nematodes, ants, and the mouse cranium. Moreover, they see their findings as being of great value in neuroscience for investigating neuronal plasticity, learning, and memory.
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