HongLab

Grand opening of our lab at Stanford Materials Science and Engineering Department and Stanford Neurosciences Institute!😎

[HongLab @HongNeuroTech]

@DingchangLin Congratulations Dingchang!

[HongLab @HongNeuroTech]

@TakeshiImaiLab @gabriel_a_d_ @naturemethods @Shigenori774 And if you care, check out these crazy values of real products — these are the osmolarities mucosal cells can be bathed in for hours!
https://t.co/qPWVacXIt1

[HongLab @HongNeuroTech]

If extreme osmolarity instantly killed mammalian cells, sushi restaurants would be biomedical hazard sites.

Soy sauce can reach ~7000 mOsm (~18–20% NaCl). Yet oral epithelial cells (these are non-keratinized live cells) are bathed in extremely hypertonic solutions during eating, even with saliva dilution.

I don’t think generalizing the stringent requirements for the brain (kudos for your work!) to other parts of the body (as demonstrated in our and many others’ tartrazine works) is a good idea.

At least these cells are no less healthy than me enjoying brined olives over a 30-min meal!

[HongLab @HongNeuroTech]

I am humbled and grateful to receive the Sloan Fellowship in Physics -- although not a physicist by training, I seem to have been entangled long enough.
I’m deeply grateful to my mentors, research group, colleagues and collaborators, and department chair for supporting my nomination. Thank you! #SloanFellow

[Sloan Foundation @SloanFoundation]

Congrats to the 126 early-career scholars awarded a 2026 Sloan Research Fellowship, whose creativity and innovation set them apart as the next generation of scientific leaders! Our Fellows represent 7 fields and 44 institutions across the US and Canada.

https://t.co/8ENNQ2s6Ov

[HongLab @HongNeuroTech]

@SergeyStavisky @StanfordMSE Thank you Sergey!

[HongLab @HongNeuroTech]

@asalleo Thank you so much, Alberto, for your support!!

[HongLab @HongNeuroTech]

We’re excited to share our latest Nature Protocols paper, which presents a detailed protocol for achieving optical transparency in live mice using tartrazine: https://t.co/UZXPsKT9d0.
We're also thrilled to see several recent papers from other labs highlighting the power of tartrazine!
https://t.co/CU6fs370OS
https://t.co/9OG0C6NpEx
https://t.co/CV1XrTBOmw
https://t.co/XUSy9a046W
https://t.co/Ejoiz4MBeW
https://t.co/zD9JO8DGuA

[HongLab @HongNeuroTech]

@asalleo @BrongersmaMark Thank you so much, Alberto!!

[Takeshi Imai @TakeshiImaiLab]

I apologize if our previous preprint post was taken as if the original results were irreproducible. The skin clearing was reproduced. Although other issues remain, we decided to retract our preprint. I apologize to @HongNeuroTech and the community for the confusion.

[HongLab @HongNeuroTech]

@TakeshiImaiLab ...and please note the in vivo skin transparency is transient and can be reversed (Fig. S3, S6, S8 & S9), which is different from prolonged soaking of other types of cultured cells in a solution (in your preprint).

[HongLab @HongNeuroTech]

@TakeshiImaiLab We did have this in the paper: "For thicker and less permeable skin, a microneedle applicator or an insulin syringe with a 30G needle (fig. S7) was used to deliver the solution of absorbing molecules without agarose."

[HongLab @HongNeuroTech]

@TakeshiImaiLab 3. Skin transparency was reversed by rinsing and massaging the skin with water (Fig. S3, S6, S8 & S9). This transient exposure differs from prolonged soaking of cells in a solution and can be tolerated (Fig. 36).

[HongLab @HongNeuroTech]

2. Dye molecules need to cross the skin barrier to be fully absorbed: "After the abdominal tissue has sufficiently absorbed the dye molecules, a clear lubricating eye gel was applied"; "For thicker and less permeable skin, a microneedle applicator or an insulin syringe with a 30G needle (fig. S7) was used to deliver the solution of absorbing molecules without agarose."

[HongLab @HongNeuroTech]

We would like to share this detailed protocol based on our recent Science paper to help any interested team in achieving optical transparency in live mice with tartrazine: https://t.co/JTitRuz1D5

[HongLab @HongNeuroTech]

@StanfordMSE Many thanks to my supportive department for having my back all the time!!

[HongLab @HongNeuroTech]

@whl0903 @StanfordMSE Thank you so much Evan!