Cancer therapies: a revolution thanks to “transparent” mice?

Researchers recently made a major discovery in the field of medical imaging. They have developed a revolutionary method that makes dead mice transparent, opening up new perspectives for the observation of internal organs and tissues. This technique is called wildDISCO.

Identify tiny groups of cancer cells

Current cancer imaging technologies (MRI and PET) can detect large tumours, but when it comes to much smaller tumours, they often go undetected. This is believed to be the reason why the risk of cancer recurrence is so high: large clumps of cancer cells are eliminated, but there are still smaller pockets waiting to grow again.

WildDISCO hopes to put an end to this, because its incredible resolution could help identify tiny clusters of cancer cells that would ordinarily go unnoticed, allowing scientists to improve drug specificity and understand how cancer develops. spread.

Mice that look like glass

For now, this technique can only be used on dead mice.

WildDISCO works like this: Scientists use a cocktail of chemicals to remove fat and pigment from mouse tissue, making it look like glass. Next, the team floods the body with standard antibodies with a fluorescent tag, which are detected by scanners and assembled to form a three-dimensional map.

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