# Clearbot: a system for fully automated, high-throughput tissue clearing and immunostaining

> **NIH NIH R43** · TRANSLUCENCE BIOSYSTEMS, INC. · 2022 · $459,655

## Abstract

SUMMARY
Tissue clearing is a powerful technique that renders large biological samples optically transparent and allows 3D
visualization of wide-brain molecular anatomy. To help disseminate this technology, Translucence Biosystems
developed a Mesoscale Imaging System™ and, using previous SBIR NIH support, an analytical software
package for advanced analysis of brain samples, 3TKTM. While complete solutions exist for imaging and analysis
of cleared samples, no complete solution exists for the highly labor intensive and error prone tissue clearing
process. Here Translucence Biosystems introduce Clearbot™, an automated system for sample clearing and
immunostaining that will complement previous Translucence devices and complete a pipeline for reliable brain-
wide molecular anatomy of intact rodent and human tissues. In this Phase I proposal, Translucence Biosystems
will build a prototype of Clearbot™ and demonstrate automated brain tissue clearing for whole-brain analysis.
Specific aims: Aim 1: Assemble and evaluate a Clearbot prototype: the basic functionality of the prototype
developed by an engineering consultant will be evaluated for functionality, robustness, energy consumption, and
overall reliability. Aim 2: Evaluate the utility of Clearbot for automated clearing and immunostaining of
intact brains: quality and repeatability of tissue clearing will be evaluated using the prototype assembled in Aim
1. Multiple mouse brains will be cleared and immunostained with Clearbot and benchmarked to manual
processing done in parallel. This Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of developing an automated
device that is comparable to or better than manual clearing. Following success of this Phase I feasibility testing,
future developments will advance the prototype to a flexible, commercial-grade system with a robust and simple
user-interface, helping researchers apply this game-changing technology to their research questions.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10382515
- **Project number:** 1R43MH125549-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** TRANSLUCENCE BIOSYSTEMS, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Damian G. Wheeler
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $459,655
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-02-16 → 2025-02-15

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10382515

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10382515, Clearbot: a system for fully automated, high-throughput tissue clearing and immunostaining (1R43MH125549-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10382515. Licensed CC0.

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