Visualizing the Brain's Astrocytes with Diverse Chemical Scaffolds.

Astrocytes are the most abundant cells in the brain. They support neurons, adjust synaptic strength, and modulate neuronal signaling, yet the full extent of their functions is obscured by the dearth of methods for their visualization and analysis. Here, we report a chemical reporter that targets small molecules specifically to astrocytes both in vitro and in vivo.

Neuronal Calcium Recording with an Engineered TEV Protease.

Technologies for measuring the transient Ca spikes that accompany neural signaling have revolutionized our understanding of the brain. Nevertheless, microscopic visualization of Ca spikes on the time scale of neural activity across large brain regions or in thick specimens remains a significant challenge. The recent development of stable integrators of Ca, instead of transient reporters, provides an avenue to investigate neural signaling in otherwise challenging systems.