We can now make shrunken, see-through rodents for science

In a lab in Germany, researchers are making shrunken, see-through rodents. Don’t worry, it’s not as macabre as it sounds. Rather, this new method is a step forward for science because it’s the first time we can image whole animals at once and see how their organs work together. In fact, the researchers hope it’ll actually cut down on the number of rats we need for animal testing.

In a study published today in Nature Matters, researchers led by Ali Ertürk at Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich developed a technique that shrinks rodents by up to 65 percent, makes them transparent, and preserves key fluorescent proteins needed for imaging. Wonderfully, they call this technique “ultimate DISCO,” or uDISCO, which sounds like a disco...