a myelin basic protein - luciferase bioimaging noninvasive model to visualize and quantify demyelination and remyelination events in the cns at transcriptional level in vivo is provided . luciferase - expressing transgenic animals were generated with myelin basic protein promoter coupled to firefly luciferase reporter . the mbp - luci bioimaging model provides a means to monitor myelination status and the efficacy of a remyelination modulating test compound . an advantage of bioimaging is that a subject in a longitudinal study can serve as its own control . the same subject can be tracked over a demyelination and remyelination process continuously over a period of at least 10 weeks . this model enables normalization of individual animal imaging response and provides quality data with considerably reduced variance . in addition , because cohorts of animals need not be sacrificed at different time points , reduction in the number necessary for a compound efficacy study is possible .