• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Friday, October 3, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

How to MRI your dragon: Illinois researchers develop first bearded dragon brain atlas

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
June 28, 2022
in Biology
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
How to MRI your dragon
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

They’re not too cuddly, but bearded dragons are working their way into the hearts and homes of American families. And now, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are ensuring that these scaly companion animals receive the same medical care as Fluffy, Stripes, and Snowball.

How to MRI your dragon

Credit: Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.

They’re not too cuddly, but bearded dragons are working their way into the hearts and homes of American families. And now, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are ensuring that these scaly companion animals receive the same medical care as Fluffy, Stripes, and Snowball.

Interdisciplinary researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the College of Veterinary Medicine performed MRI scans on bearded dragons to generate a first-of-its-kind brain atlas: a high-resolution map of regions in the creatures’ brains.

Currently, there no standardized protocol for performing MRIs on America’s No. 1 companion reptile.

“It is challenging to get spatial resolution sufficient to see disease in the brain of a bearded dragon using a clinical MRI machine designed for humans,” said Brad Sutton, a professor of bioengineering and the technical director of the Biomedical Imaging Center at the Beckman Institute. “It is important to understand what a healthy bearded dragon’s brain looks like, and to understand the variation across different animals.”

Anesthesia is routinely used for animals during MRI scans. Because the scanner contains a strong magnet, specialized metal-free anesthetic monitoring equipment is also required.

“There are several instances when a bearded dragon would benefit from an MRI exam. However, a strong consideration prior to ordering this diagnostic would be the risks associated with anesthesia,” said Krista Keller, an assistant professor of veterinary and clinical medicine and the service head of zoological medicine at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

The researchers’ work appeared in Frontiers in Veterinary Science in May 2022. It identified a predictable and safe anesthetic protocol that can be used in future clinical cases. Data from this study also expands the clinical information available to researchers performing high-resolution MRI scans of bearded dragons in the future.

To compile their data, the team used a 3 Tesla MRI scanner located in Beckman’s Biomedical Imaging Center to image seven bearded dragons safely and non-invasively. The bearded dragons came from a research and study colony and represent the most common lizard species encountered in veterinary medical practice.

The researchers used an image averaging strategy to compile the scans into a single idealized model of a bearded dragon brain; the resulting atlas will be used as a standard reference material in the event that a bearded dragon may be diagnosed with or treated for a neurological disease. Anatomical atlases of reptiles including the tawny dragon, the tokay gecko, and the garter snake were also used for reference.

“Our goal for this study was to not only provide clinicians with an anatomic reference of the bearded dragon brain, but to also establish a safe and efficient MRI and sedation protocol that can be utilized in practices with access to either a 1.5 or 3 Tesla MRI,” said Kari Foss, an assistant professor of veterinary and clinical medicine.

The researchers identified nine anatomic structures in the bearded dragon brain including the thalamus, optic nerve, optic tectum, lateral ventricles, medulla, telencephalon, tectal ventricle, cerebellum, and the olfactory lobe and stalk.


Editor’s notes:

The publication titled “Establishing an MRI-based protocol and atlas of the bearded dragon (pogona vitticeps) brain” is accessible online at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.886333

Supplementary material for this article is accessible online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2022.886333/full#supplementary-material 

For full author information, please consult the publication.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

All live animal use and experimental procedures were approved by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. All lizards recovered without complication.

Watch “How to MRI your dragon” on YouTube.

A full physical and neurological exam by a veterinary clinician is the only way to assess whether a bearded dragon might benefit from an MRI scan. If you’re considering scheduling an exam for your dragon, we have some resources for you!



Journal

Frontiers in Veterinary Science

DOI

10.3389/fvets.2022.886333

Method of Research

Imaging analysis

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Establishing an MRI-Based Protocol and Atlas of the Bearded Dragon (Pogona vitticeps) Brain

Article Publication Date

13-May-2022

COI Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Scientists Uncover New Intracellular Trafficking Pathway in Plant Cells

Scientists Uncover New Intracellular Trafficking Pathway in Plant Cells

October 3, 2025
Microscopic Sugars in the Brain Alter Emotional Pathways, Driving Depression

Microscopic Sugars in the Brain Alter Emotional Pathways, Driving Depression

October 3, 2025

Plant Mobile Domain Proteins Resist Polycomb Gene Silencing

October 3, 2025

Unraveling Heterosis in Eucalyptus Growth Through Transcriptomics

October 3, 2025

POPULAR NEWS

  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    93 shares
    Share 37 Tweet 23
  • New Study Indicates Children’s Risk of Long COVID Could Double Following a Second Infection – The Lancet Infectious Diseases

    88 shares
    Share 35 Tweet 22
  • Physicists Develop Visible Time Crystal for the First Time

    75 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19
  • New Insights Suggest ALS May Be an Autoimmune Disease

    66 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 17

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

From Parkinson’s to Rare Diseases: Scientists Discover a Key Cellular Health Switch

SMFM Releases Updated Guidelines for Diagnosing and Managing Heart Failure in Pregnancy and Postpartum

Scientists Uncover New Intracellular Trafficking Pathway in Plant Cells

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 62 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.