T-CLEARE: a pilot community-driven tissue clearing protocol repository

Selecting and implementing a tissue clearing protocol is challenging. Established more than 100 years ago, tissue clearing is still a rapidly evolving field of research. There are currently many published protocols to choose from, and each performs better or worse across a range of key evaluation factors (e.g., speed, cost, tissue stability, fluorescence quenching). Additionally, tissue clearing protocols are often optimized for specific experimental contexts, and applying an existing protocol to a new problem can require a lengthy period of adaptation by trial and error. Although the primary literature and review articles provide a useful starting point for optimization, there is growing recognition that results can vary dramatically with changes to tissue type or antibody used. To help address this issue, we have developed a novel, freely available repository of tissue clearing protocols named T-CLEARE (Tissue CLEAring protocol REpository; https://doryworkspace.org/doryviz). T-CLEARE incorporates community responses to an open survey designed to capture details not commonly found in the scientific literature, including modifications to published protocols required for specific use cases and instances when tissue clearing protocols did not perform well (negative results). The goal of T-CLEARE is to help the community share evaluations and modifications of tissue clearing protocols for various tissue types and potentially identify best-in-class methods for a given application.