… This week marks the publication of a new tool that may alter the way we look at the brain. Karl Deisseroth and his colleagues at Stanford University have developed a method they call CLARITY. Yes, CLARITY is an acronym, for Clear Lipid-exchanged Anatomically Rigid Imaging/immunostaining-compatible Tissue hYdrogel. By replacing the brain’s fat with a clear gel, CLARITY turns the opaque and impenetrable brain into a transparent and permeable structure. Most important, the hydrogel holds the brain’s anatomy intact. And because the hydrogel is permeable, the brain can be stained to localize proteins, neurotransmitters, and genes at a high resolution [see images below]. Unlike other recent breakthroughs in neuroanatomy, this one can be used in human brains…
CLARITY arrives only a week into the new BRAIN Initiative, announced by President Obama on April 2nd. Yes, BRAIN is another acronym — for Brain Research for Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies. With some 200 neuroscientists in the East Room of the White House, the President declared, “…there is this enormous mystery waiting to be unlocked, and the BRAIN Initiative will change that by giving scientists the tools they need to get a dynamic picture of the brain in action and better understand how we think and how we learn and how we remember. And that knowledge could be — will be — transformative”…
The new BRAIN Initiative, building on these recent advances, could not come at a better time. Several recent reports have emphasized the increase in prevalence and the increasing costs of brain disorders, from autism to Alzheimer’s disease. The World Health Organization estimates that neuropsychiatric diseases in the developed world are already the leading source of medical disability. A recent report from the World Economic Forum projects that health care for mental disorders will account for the greatest expense among health care costs of all non-communicable diseases in the coming decades, greater than cancer, diabetes, and pulmonary disease put together. Given the contribution of mental disorders to these other medical diseases and recognizing our still limited understanding of the brain, you can see why the President called for “this next great American project.”
If CLARITY is a predictor, the next few years could be a period of rapid new insights into brain structure and function. As Dyson said, “new directions in science are launched by new tools.” One can barely begin to imagine how tools like CLARITY will change our concepts of how the brain works in health and disease.
I wish I could read this with the naive enthusiasm of the 1950s kid I once was reading Popular Science magazines. But I can’t bring it off, even with the pretty pictures, because I run into Dr. Insel’s top·spin paragraph [in red] and realize I’m reading science fiction coming from the National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH]. The fanciful notion that the BRAIN Initiative comes just in the nick of time to stave off the waves of mental illness sweeping the land based on those fictitious WHO figures [see old themes…] has become embarrassingly typical fare. He became NIMH Director in 2002, going to Washington during the height of the reign of spin-meister Karl Rove, and I think it must have rubbed off on him, because this kind of top·spin has become his preferred mode of interacting with the world. Recall this:Over the past 3 years, Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, has been investigating payments by pharmaceutical manufacturers to many academic leaders and researchers. Several of the researchers identified in this investigation have been psychiatrists, and some have been supported by the NIH. From the beginning, NIMH has been concerned that these allegations raise questions about the integrity of our funded research. As a steward of public funds I am committed to ensuring that the research we support is unbiased and scientifically rigorous.
First, a few facts. From the earliest allegations, NIMH has been aggressive [within the constraints of our legal authority] to ensure that we would not fund research to scientists or institutions violating federal policy. Following review by NIMH and investigations by grantee institutions, some researchers have been removed from projects and, at least one left his position at a prestigious University. This researcher is not currently receiving NIH support and has not received NIMH support since December of 2008…
Most important, for over a year now, NIH has been working to strengthen Federal regulations on financial conflict of interest to ensure greater transparency and accountability and to prevent the introduction of bias in Federally supported research…
As always, thanks for posting.
Amen!
Insel and his NIMH.
All hat. No cattle.
Duane
They’re not talking about replacing the lipids with this CLARITY gel in the brains of live animals, are they????
CLARITY is just a new mode of staining sections of brain, see http://www.hhmi.org/news/deisseroth20130410.html Whew!!!
Big deal, more brain anatomy. This still is not going to show connections.
thanks, Duane, for the “all hat, no cattle.” hadn’t heard that one. love it.
This is an important advancement from a basic science standpoint. Sadly, rather than being heralded as such it is being subjected to Dr. Insel’s future think treatment.
I agree. I was surprised he tagged on his monotonous message…
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
You really think the people who control the information allegedly validated from genome research are altruistic and benevolent?
Just watch various sci-fi movies from the last 30 years and see how art imitates life. Power corrupts, and to watch alleged leaders in this profession whore it up and out, well, again, to be in Frisco next month, it won’t be pretty for people who had souls landing at the airport in mid May.
If you care about patients and the profession, being an APA member is incongruent with those alleged concerns. I am sick and tired of listening and reading colleagues tell me more can be done to help psychiatry to be a member.
Who are these people, disciples of the movie “Valkerie”, and you are going to vanquish Hitler!? Get real, reject the DSM 5!
Off topic, but I’m looking for a study or studies. Seems every decade another report comes out showing that when mental patients in wards get upset it’s almost always a reaction to behavior or words that would upset any adult. Violent behavior in mental wards is often a response to the violent behavior of staff. Families and mental health staff often collude in treating patients as “problem children,” in the name of “helping” them, and seem unaware that they’re doing this.
I can say from experience that some staff seem to be completely unaware of their own affect (arms waving wildly, raised voice, look of extreme alarm) in the face of truly mundane things; overbearing behavior, a condescending smugness worthy of its own diagnosis…
Any clues welcome.
Some interesting thoughts on anonymity in scientific commentary:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/#.UWdkiLd5mc2
According to the NY Times,
“The researchers say this process may help uncover the physical underpinnings of devastating mental disorders like schizophrenia, autism, post-traumatic stress disorder and others.”
This is impossible. You’d have to have the brains of people who unquestionably had any of these disorders to find concordances. This overblown promise depends on the shaky premise of psychiatric diagnosis. And would not the brains being dead affect the supposedly disordered neural connections?