Where do research ideas come from?\u00a0 Do they arrive in a thunderbolt eureka moment, or do they start as an observation or hunch, requiring some time to simmer, brew, incubate and grow?\u00a0 Some may evolve from an accidental or serendipitous discovery during a routine process.<\/p>\n
Observant operators of the Phoenix MICRON\u00ae<\/a> retinal imaging system may discover incidental ophthalmic findings throughout their imaging of murine eye\/brain research.\u00a0 Such was the case for Travis Cossette, Research Assistant III in Dr. Gareth Howell\u2019s Lab at The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine who had been using the MICRON for just over one year.\u00a0 While performing bright field and fluorescein angiography on a 4-month-old New Zealand Obese mouse (NZO\/HlLtJ)<\/a>\u00a0 he took some time to document a finding he thought was unique.<\/p>\n \u201cNZO inbred mice and strains originating from them develop severe obesity, and are therefore useful for studying obesity and Type 2 diabetes.\u00a0 I had injected the mouse with IP sodium fluorescein and was capturing images during the late phase of the angiogram.\u201d says Travis.\u00a0 \u201cI typically adjust the focus from posterior to anterior to make sure my images at various levels or the retina are sharp, when I noticed unusual vessels coming up through the vitreous.\u00a0 Not only that, I could see circulation within the vessels as well as blood flow in the retinal microvasculature when I focused posteriorly.\u00a0 I was excited to be able to capture a Phoenix MICRON video to share and to dive into the body of research articles to understand what I was looking at.\u00a0 I had difficulty finding any information on my search terms \u201canomalous retinal vessels in mice\u201d so I reached out to the staff at Phoenix-MICRON, Inc., in Bend, Oregon.\u00a0 They have accumulated a database of over 300 published research publications where the Phoenix MICRON system was used.\u00a0 They recognized what I had documented and were able to direct me to some useful articles.\u00a0\u00a0 It turns out the vessels are not so anomalous.\u201d<\/p>\n