Brainbow
Updated by Hongjiang & ChatGPT on 02/19/2023
(2013,Nat.Meth.)ImprovedBrainbow
Brainbow is a neuroscience technique used to visualize and study the complex connections between neurons in the brain. It was developed in 2007 by a team of scientists led by Jeff Lichtman and Joshua Sanes at Harvard University.
The Brainbow technique involves introducing multiple copies of a specially engineered gene into a group of neurons. These genes produce fluorescent proteins of various colors that are randomly expressed in the neurons. Each neuron then becomes a unique color, allowing researchers to distinguish and track individual neurons and their connections within the brain.
The technique has been used to study a wide range of neurological phenomena, such as the formation and pruning of synapses during development, the changes that occur in the brain in response to learning and memory, and the disruption of neural circuits in disease states such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Brainbow has contributed to significant advances in our understanding of the structure and function of the brain.
In the transgenic multicolor labeling strategy called Brainbow, Cre-loxP recombination is used to create a stochastic choice of expression among fluorescent proteins, resulting in the indelible marking of mouse neurons with multiple distinct colors.