Fluorescent cranial nerves: image via Wellcome Images Imagine
that the nerves in your body could light up just like glow
sticks. That's what a new liquid developed at the University of
California, San Diego (UCSD) does when it enters your
bloodstream, enabling surgeons to better distinquish between
nerves and other body tissues. Researchers from the Departments
of Pharmacology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Otolaryngology-Head
and Neck Surgery, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at
UCSD have developed an amino acid based fluorescent liquid that
will travel through the bloodstream and light up when it hits a
nerve. It is important to preserve nerves during surgery,
because any interference with them could lead to serious
complications such as urinary incontinence and erectile
dysfunction (during prostate surgery), pain, numbness, weakness,
or paralysis. Though electromyography is used to identify the
most prominent nerves, the thin or buried nerves may be
overlooked with these methods. The fluorescent liquid d