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Credit: B. Kashthuri and J. W. Lichtman, Washington University School of Medicine
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With stunning advances in staining, fluorescent protein labeling, and other imaging techniques, scientists can begin to answer sophisticated questions about developmental processes -- how cells create patterns in embryos, or how scaffolding proteins shape and reshape cells. This image, by J. W. Lichtman and colleagues at the Washington University School of Medicine, shows the developing cerebral cortex of a mouse engineered to express blue and green fluorescent proteins in their neurons. The animals provide a unique opportunity to see how cells compete during development, establish long-term interrelationships, and race to forge contacts with growing muscles or organs. M. Beckman covers the impact of new imaging techniques on developmental studies in a news article in Science's 4 April 2003 special issue.
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