Etsuo A. SUSAKI
Department of Systems Pharmacology, Graduate School ofMedicine, The University of Tokyo, Japan

CUBIC-HistoVIsion: a versatile three-dimensional
whole-organ/body staining and imaging based onelectrolyte-gel properties of biological tissue

Contact : suishess-kyu [at sign] umin.ac.jp
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Etsuo A. SUSAKI
Department of Systems Pharmacology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Japan

Research Interests

T h e re c e n t d e v e l o p m e n t o f v a r i o u s t i s s u e c l e a r i n g a n d t h re e -Multicellular Systems Biology, Aging, Disease model, Tissue clearing, 3D imaging

dimensional (3D) imaging methods, including our CUBIC pipeline [1-2],
allowed the comprehensive observation of the whole organ/body withcellular resolution or more. However, in the long history of histology,
whole-organ/body 3D staining and imaging have been challenging due

Education
20022007

to the difficulty of adequate penetration of stains and antibodies. Even
Medical doctor, Faculty of Medicine, Kyushu University
Doctor of Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyushu University

a small dye occasionally exhibits resistance to penetration, implying acomplex physicochemical environment in the staining system.
In this presentation, we will introduce a versatile whole-organ/bodystaining and imaging protocol named CUBIC-HistoVIsion [3]. To dissect
the complex physicochemical environment, we first conducted a

Professional Career

precise characterization of biological tissue as an electrolyte gel. Then,

2006 - 20102010 - 20132013 - present

by using a simplified tissue-mimicking artificial electrolyte gel. The

Post-doc, Medical Institute of Bioregulation, Kyushu University
Post-doc (JSPS PD/RIKEN SPR), RIKEN CDB
Faculty staff (2019- associate prof.), Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo

we experimentally evaluated a broad range of 3D staining conditions
combination of essential conditions allowed a bottom-up design ofefficient 3D staining protocol which could uniformly label adult whole
mouse brains, an adult marmoset hemisphere, a ~1 cm3 tissue block ofadult human postmortem cerebellum, and an infant whole marmoset
body with dozens of antibodies and cell-impermeant nucleic acid

Scientific Activitiesstains. We also demonstrate that our protocol enabled structural and2002 - 20102010 - present

tracing and whole-brain c-Fos immunostaining. The CUBIC-HistoVIsion

Research on cell cycle/cell activity states and their molecular mechanisms
Development of cell-omics and high-throughput genetics technology

functional neural circuit identification and analysis with Rabies virus
offers advanced opportunities for organ- and organism-scale
histological analysis of multicellular systems in the brain and body.
Fig. 1 Overview of CUBIC-HistoVIsion and representative
3D imaging data of whole mouse brains.

Honors20172019

The Young Scientists’ Prize of The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

References

Selected award of PRESTO “Single-cell” area, Japan Science and Technology Agency[ 1 ] Susaki et al. Cell 157: 726-739 (2014)

Publications
1. Susaki EA et al., “Versatile whole-organ/body staining based on electrolyte-gel properties of biological tissues”, Nature Communications 11 (2020) 1982.

[ 2 ] Susaki et al. Nature Protocols 10: 1709-1727 (2015)[ 3 ] Susaki et al. Nature Communications 11: 1982 (2020)

Susaki EA and Ueda HR. “Whole-body and Whole-Organ Clearing and Imaging Techniques with Single-Cell Resolution: Toward Organism-Level

2. Systems Biology in Mammals”, Cell Chemical Biology 23 (2016) 137-157.

3. Susaki EA et al., “Whole-Brain Imaging with Single-Cell Resolution Using Chemical Cocktails and Computational Analysis”, Cell 157 (2014) 726-739.

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