Mice everywhere are breathing a collective sigh of relief. Soon, far fewer small laboratory animals will be routinely sacrificed to allow researchers to observe the after-effects of gene mutations or other experimental manipulations. Instead, investigators will be able to track the implications of those changes in living specimens in exquisite detail and for extended periods of time, thus painting a fuller, more accurate picture of what's going on and why. At least, that's the likely scenario if the various micro imaging and scanning technologies under development live up to their potential.
Photo courtesy of Duke University's Center for In Vivo Microscopy Rat Livers: A series of MR microscopy images from the lab of Duke's Allan Johnson shows the effects of bromobenzene treatment on a rat liver over a period of 96 hours. Micro CAT (computed axial tomography) or micro CT, MR (magnetic resonance) microscopy, micro PET (positron emission tomography), and ...
