Confetti in a Mouse

This colorful collage is a group of kidney cells from a mouse with a festive-sounding name. Researchers genetically engineered the so-called confetti mouse so it has cells that fluoresce in combinations of red, blue, yellow, or green depending on the protein each cell produces.

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Confetti in a Mouse

What am I looking at?

This is a group of cells isolated from the kidney of a genetically engineered confetti mouse. Each of the different colored cells – red (1), green (2), blue (3), or yellow (4) – produces a specific protein that is tagged with a fluorescent marker which gives them their hue when viewed under a microscope.

Biology in the background

Confetti mice are very useful in research because they allow scientists to track which cells produce which proteins based on their color under a fluorescent microscope. These mice are particularly useful in cancer research because they allow researchers to see differences in the protein levels in cells and in the composition of tumor cells as compared to healthy cells. They also allow researchers to track the spread of cancer throughout a mouse’s body using only color.

In mice, these cells are about 13 micrometers across, or roughly six times smaller than the width of a human hair.

Technique

This image was created using confocal microscopy.