The OiVM Core has a complete tissue clearing pipeline designed around the X-CLARITY protocol.  We are well versed in a wide variety of clearing methods in addition to X-CLARITY, such as solvent based iDisco, 3Disco and other water-based solutions such as Scale.

X-CLARITY is a water-based clearing method that renders biological tissue transparent to light.  It accomplishes this by first infusing fixed tissue with a hydrogel solution.  This solution is allowed to diffuse through the tissue overnight and is then cross-linked under vacuum and elevated temperature in order to scaffold the tissue down to the protein level.

Once the tissue has been polymerized, it can be placed into an electrophoretic chamber where a solution of SDS detergent is cycled over it.  The SDS encapsulates the lipid into micelles which are then stripped away by the electric field.

The resulting hydrogel mold can then be submerged into a RIMS (Refractive Index Matching Solution) buffer that has the same refractive index as the hydrogel, rendering the resulting tissue mold transparent to light.

This technology is invaluable for imaging large, intact organ systems as well as whole organisms.  Tissue processed using these methods can be imaged on our lightsheet and confocal microscopy platforms.