Imaging every cell across the body reveals hidden organ-wide circuits
A new platform called WHOLISTIC enables simultaneous, high-resolution imaging of cellular calcium dynamics across nearly the entire body of transparent vertebrates (larval zebrafish and Danionella cerebrum). By combining pan-cellular calcium sensors, fast volumetric microscopy, and whole-body expansion microscopy, the method uncovers cross-tissue activity patterns, organ-level traveling waves, muscle–organ couplings, and brain–body circuits (including brainstem control of blood flow during stress). The study also demonstrates causal links using optogenetics and maps cellular substrates with ExM, offering a scalable framework for systems physiology and disease research across multiple scales.
