What is InSight?

Cells to be studied are implanted into the anterior chamber of the eye of a living animals. The cells can be investigated in a specifically designed microscopic system longitudinally, non-invasive, and at a single cell resolution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

InSight technology is a unique method for observing cellular reactions in a living organism. The method has been developed by researchers at the Rolf Luft Research Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology, Karoliska Institutet, Sweden. It was first used to study the performance of pancreatic insulin-producing beta-cells implanted into a mouse eye.

After a completed implantation of cells into the anterior chamber of an eye, the remaining steps of the InSight technology are non-invasive: Molecular reactions in the implanted as well as the surrounding cells are studied in a specifically designed microscopic system.

Although it was first used in diabetes research, the InSight technology can aid any academic or industrial project, which would benefit from direct visualization of molecular reactions within and/or between living cells. For instance, a publication in PNAS from July 2011 refers to implementation of the InSight technology to study immune reactions during allorejection.

Martin Köhler, Erwin Ilegems and Jia Yu

Barbara Leibinger, Ingo Leibinger and Galyna Bryzgalova