Celebrate Brain Awareness Week 2024 with Vizgen
Comprised of 86 billion neurons and a similar number of non-neuronal cells, the human brain is an amazingly complex structure, as detailed by a recent special issue of Science. To better understand brain function and how different types of brain cells interact, neuroscience researchers have begun to leverage the power of spatial genomics technologies, including Vizgen’s MERSCOPE® Platform.
Each year, the neuroscience research community comes together to recognize Brain Awareness Week, a global campaign dedicated to fostering public enthusiasm and support for brain research and celebrating the impact brain science has on our everyday lives. In honor of Brain Awareness Week this March 11-17, we are highlighting several mouse brain images generated by Vizgen customers that were runners-up in our 2024 MERSCOPE® Data Image Calendar Contest.
Check them out:
Figure 1: Fresh frozen mouse brain section highlighting hypothalamus (red), cortical (yellow), and hippocampal layers . Transcripts of 4 genes from a 500 gene MERFISH panel shown: MOBP (green), Baiap3 (red), cadps2 (yellow), and Bok (pink) with DAPI (blue). Submitted by Vizgen customer Steffy B. Manjila, Post-doctoral Scholar at NBS, Penn State College of Medicine.
Figure 2: Fresh frozen mouse brain tissue section beautifully capturing the different expression patterns between layers. Transcripts from 136 genes shown including Vegfa, Top2a, Sox10, Gfap with Cell boundary stains 1,2,3 plus DAPI and PolyT stains. Submitted by Vizgen customer Arianna Williams, Research Associate at TGEN.
Figure 3: MERSCOPE spatial transcriptomic imaging of viral labeled cells in fresh frozen mouse brain visual cortex at varying resolution. Transcripts from 10 genes are shown including Cux2, Fezf2 and Slc17a7. Submitted by Kevin Johnston, Post-doctoral Scholar at the University of California, Irvine.
Figure 4: MERSCOPE spatial transcriptomic imaging of viral labeled cells in fresh frozen mouse brain visual cortex. Background shows segmented cells from a separate sample. Transcripts from 10 genes are shown including Slc17a7, Cux2 and Fezf2. Submitted by Vizgen customer Kevin Johnston, Post-doctoral Scholar at the University of California, Irvine.
At Vizgen, we are proud to contribute to such impactful research by equipping the scientific community with the tools needed to explore the brain through a new lens, drive progress in neuroscience and improve human health.
Stay tuned to see the beautiful brain images that we’ll spotlight as the July and November features of our 2024 MERSCOPE Data Image Calendar!
Learn more about how MERSCOPE can help advance your research by reaching out to our team.