Catching Mice

As Ferris Bueller says “life moves pretty fast” – he was talking about hijinks in the 1980s, but the logic holds for life inside us too. Biological processes zip by – and by only focussing on the details, we might miss the bigger picture. But what if we could have both detail and perspective? Here researchers watch life inside an entire mouse torso. Using a modified form of photo-acoustic computed tomography, they fire harmless ion beams at the tissue, which absorbs some of the energy, emitting it as heat. Sensors spinning in circles around the unaware mouse catch these patterns in 3D, revealing details that might be missed otherwise. Different structures absorb and emit different patterns of energy – allowing researchers to pick out different organs and tissues at different depths in the body (rainbow colours). Watching processes as they occur, in vivo [in the living animal], promises insights into the effects of drug or metabolic diseases.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Video from work by Jinge Yang and colleagues
• Department of Electrical Engineering, Convergence IT Engineering, Medical Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Artificial Intelligence, and Medical Device Innovation Center, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
• Published in Laser and Photonics Review, October 2024