Dawen Cai, Ph.D., Assistant Research Scientist, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School

This is an image of nerve cells in the brain of a mouse.  Each individual neuron has a unique color so that its connections to other cells can be followed.  This technology for neuronal imaging is state of the art; the range of colors is generated by engineering the genome of the mouse to express three different colors, red, green and blue, in different amounts in different neurons.  This creates a palette of hues similar to that seen on a TV screen.  Techniques such as this can be used to understand how neuronal circuits arise during development and how they are modified during learning.