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ºÚÁÏÍø´óÊÂ¼Ç researchers, part of the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine (CVMM) theme community, have developed OpenEMMU, a freely available and highly adaptable method for studying DNA replication and cell cycle progression.

Published in iScience, the work was led by Dr Osvaldo Contreras, a Research Fellow at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and ºÚÁÏÍø´óʼǒs School of Clinical Medicine, with ºÚÁÏÍø´óʼÇ-affiliated co-authors including Dr Nicholas Murray, Dr Chris Thekkedam, and Professor Richard Harvey.

OpenEMMU replaces expensive commercial kits with common reagents, making it over 140 times cheaper while producing brighter, clearer images. It enables researchers to combine multiple antibodies in a single experiment and is compatible with advanced imaging techniques such as IBEX and light-sheet microscopy.

Dr Contreras explains:

OpenEMMU makes it easier and more affordable to track how cells copy their DNA and progress through the cell cycle.ÌýWe have shown that it works in many settings – from immune cell activation to heart and limb development in embryos, lab-grown cardiac organoids, and even whole zebrafish larvae.

By making the method open-source, the ºÚÁÏÍø´óʼÇ-led team is helping researchers worldwide study how tissues grow, repair and respond to stress—supporting innovation across developmental biology, immunology, and regenerative medicine.

Congratulations to the team on this outstanding achievement - an inspiring example of the CVMM theme community driving open, collaborative, and impactful science!

Graphical Abstract: OpenEMMU Workflow and Applications.

This visual summary illustrates the OpenEMMU platform—a versatile, open-source methodology for studying DNA replication and cell cycle dynamics.