#Mice made transparent with a #dye used in #Doritos
Stanford scientists has found an agent that can reversibly make skin transparent without damaging it. #Tartrazine, a popular yellow-orange food dye called FD&C Yellow 5 is notably used for coloring Doritos. Hong’s team dissolved the dye in an aqueous solution and created a transparency-inducing lotion of sorts. It worked, because the dye reduced the difference in refractive index between water and lipids in the skin.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/09/mice-made-transparent-with-a-dye-used-in-doritos/

In case anyone was following the recent Science paper about using Tartrazine for #tissueclearing, apparently there is at least one (competing) group that couldn't reproduce it and wrote a preprint about it:

Tartrazine cannot make live tissues transparent
https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.29.615648

Discussion on Pubpeer, including the Tartrazine paper's author's response:
https://pubpeer.com/publications/81314BB3706B3D6ADAD49F301B2FA5

Rendering Skin Transparent Using the Food Dye Tartrazine https://hackaday.com/2024/09/07/rendering-skin-transparent-using-the-food-dye-tartrazine/ #refractiveindex #tartrazine #Science #fooddye

Rendering Skin Transparent Using the Food Dye Tartrazine https://hackaday.com/2024/09/07/rendering-skin-transparent-using-the-food-dye-tartrazine/ #refractiveindex #tartrazine #Science #fooddye

Turning tissues temporarily transparent
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr7935

* food dye suppresses light scattering in biol. tissue
* enable vivo imaging
* common food coloring Yellow No. 5 (tartrazine)

Transparent mice made w. light-absorbing dye reveal organs at work
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02887-4

Scientists Make Living Mouse Skin Transparent w. Simple Food Dye
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-make-living-mices-skin-transparent-with-simple-food-dye

Common food dye can make skin transparent
Non-paywalled: https://archive.fo/YgZYq