Using genetic engineering to make zany-looking zebrafish isn’t exactly new. (You can buy neon-tinted “GloFish” at just about any pet store.) But this time, the pops of color serve a purpose other than brightening up your aquarium or a David Blaine trick: learning how skin grows back.
Scientists at Duke University created a new line of zebrafish and programmed each cell in the zebrafish’s skin to be a different color, using an adaptation of a technique called “brainbow.” Because normal skin cells look pretty much identical, each color operated as a “barcode” of sorts for a cell or a small group of cells.
via The Verge
Image: Flickr/NICHD
