Podcasts · From Our Neurons to Yours
How see-through brains could transform neuroscience (Big Ideas in Neuroscience) | Guosong Hong
· 36 min · S9 E5
Episode How see-through brains could transform neuroscience (Big Ideas in Neuroscience) | Guosong Hong
What if we could make the brain see-through?
It sounds like science fiction, but it could revolutionize how we study the brain.
Today on the show, we're talking with Guosong Hong, a faculty scholar here at the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute who has a unique reputation for developing creative techniques that literally shed light on the brain—from using fluorescent nanomaterials and focused ultrasound to create a virtual flashlight inside the skull, to discovering a common food dye that temporarily makes skin, muscle, and even parts of the brain transparent.
Now, Guosong and colleagues are taking this work to the next level through a Wu Tsai Neuro Big Ideas grant, genetically engineering mice to have see-through brains from birth.
Learn More
• Q&A: 'To see is to believe' (Wu Tsai Neuro, 2026) • Big Ideas in Neuroscience tackle brain science of everyday life and more (Wu Tsai Neuro, 2026) • Researchers turn mouse scalp transparent to image brain development (Stanford Report, 2026) • The future of transparent tissue (Stanford Engineering's The Future of Everything Podcast, 2025) • Non-invasive brain stimulation opens new ways to study and treat the brain (Wu Tsai Neuro, 2025) • Researchers make mouse skin transparent using a common food dye (Stanford Report, 2024)
Note: Episode transcript will be uploaded within 24-48 hours of publication
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Links in the notes 15
- https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/people/guosong-hong
- https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/mbct/news/engineers-develop-less-invasive-way-study-brain
- https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/researchers-make-mouse-skin-transparent-using-common-food-dye
- https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/big-ideas-neuroscience-tackle-brain-science-everyday-life-and-more
- https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/our-science/funded-projects/genetically-encoded-nature-inspired-transparency-mammalian-brain
- https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/qa-see-believe
- https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/08/mouse-scalp-transparent-image-brain-development-research?utm_content=httpsnewsstanfordedustories202508mousescalptransparentimagebraindevelopmentresearch&utm_source=feedotter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=int-08-27-2025&mkt_tok=NjYwLVRKQy05ODQAAAGcj8KINgZn4AOXR0F3cFZgbsQT0PrlsZgK8pnYB9nH-Gy6h6A6pTiwYa7kJxrEqzq1dykDrD2XOQIY67JLxPcpdasmPUXz57HZS5FDIdM
- https://engineering.stanford.edu/news/future-transparent-tissue
- https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/non-invasive-brain-stimulation-opens-new-ways-study-and-treat-brain
- https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2024/09/using-a-common-food-dye-researchers-made-mouse-skin-transparent
- https://www.buzzsprout.com/2112871/fan_mail/new
- https://www.buzzsprout.com/2112871/share
- https://twitter.com/stanfordbrain
- https://www.facebook.com/WuTsaiNeurosciencesInstitute
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/wu-tsai-neurosciences-institute
Transcript
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