Immunity Illuminated

Seeing is believing, and visualising the spread of disease is also crucial to treating it effectively. To detect and monitor cancer, we rely primarily on invasive methods such as blood samples and biopsies, but a new technique could revolutionise our approach. As tumours are often surrounded by cells of the immune system, a team of researchers developed a means of viewing the distribution of these cells in live animals; unexpected patterns reveal the size and location of cancerous tissues. This video demonstrates the effectiveness of their technique – highlighted areas pick out a symmetric distribution of lymph nodes in a mouse’s chest and neck, where immune cells are expected to be seen, but also a diffuse area behind one shoulder, where cancerous cells were previously injected. Tracking tumours non-invasively and over a broad area offers a host of possibilities for improved diagnosis, as well as for measuring the impact of treatments.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

Emmanuelle Briolat

Writer

A researcher specialising in visual signals in Lepidoptera, camouflage and the effects of light pollution, Emmanuelle’s writing covers a range of topics, from biomedical research to children’s books about moth defences.

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• Image by Mohammad Rashidian and colleagues
• Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, USA
• Originally published under a Creative Commons Licence
• Research published in PNAS, May 2015