2024 Second Place Video Winner: Spinal motor neurons illuminated by enhancer AAV

Overview of a mouse spinal cord showing infectivity of an enhancer AAV driving SYFP2 expression (green) in spinal motor neurons following intravenous administration. The overview captures consistent expression throughout all levels of cord (cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral) on both right and left hemispheres. The subsequent “fly-through” portion of the video stiches together images of ~2um thick transverse sections of the spinal cord progressing from top to bottom (cervical to sacral). SYFP2 expression matches the expected morphology and abundance of spinal motor neurons in the mouse spinal cord based off previous data, notably the Allen in situ hybridization (ISH) atlas.
By Tanya Daigle, Allen Institute for Brain Science