OLYMPUS FV3000 CONFOCAL

High-speed point-scanning confocal, capable of imaging deep into tissues with high-sensitivity. For access please contact micron@bioch.ox.ac.uk.

Image Acknowledgement

Developing Drosophila Brain (top and bottom banner)

Collage of developing Drosophila brains showing localisation of multiple venus-tagged

proteins throughout the central nervous system. 

Blue – DAPI,  Green – venus-tagged proteins, Red – synapse and neural stem cells. 

Jeff Lee, Davis Lab, Department of Biochemistry.

Seeing through the heart (front page)

A tissue-cleared post-natal day two mouse heart showing the atria, coronary arteries and dedicated electrical network of His/Purkinje fibres of the heart. To achieve optical transparency, the opaque heart was immersed in solvents to replace lipid and heme molecules that normally obscure the light path, and light scattering was then reduced by homogenizing the refractive index throughout the sample. In this way, the complex three-dimensional structure of the post-natal mammalian conduction system His/Purkinje network can be analysed without disturbing the morphology by dissecting the heart. This is crucial to enhance our understanding of how the cycles of cardiac contraction are controlled. 

Judy Sayers, Department of Physiology