It takes billions of cells to make a human brain, and scientists have long struggled to map this complex network of neurons. Now, dozens of research teams around the country have made inroads into creating an atlas of the mouse brain as a first step toward a human brain atlas. The results describe how different cell types are organized and connected throughout the mouse brain.

The researchers, collaborating as part of the National Institute of Health’s BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN), report the new data today in a special issue of the journal Nature. The results describe how different cell types are organized and connected throughout the mouse brain.

«Our first goal is to use the mouse brain as a model to really understand the diversity of cells in the brain and how they’re regulated,» says Salk Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator Joseph Ecker, co-director of the BICCN. «Once we’ve established tools to do this, we can move to working on primate and human brains.»

The NIH Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative is «a large-scale effort that seeks to deepen understanding of the inner workings of the human mind and to improve how we treat, prevent and cure disorders of the brain.» Since its initial funding in 2014, the BRAIN Initiative has awarded more than $1.8 billion in research awards.

The BICCN, one subset of the BRAIN Initiative, specifically focuses on creating brain atlases that describe the full plethora of cells — as characterized by many different techniques — in mammalian brains. Salk is one of three institutions that were given U19 awards to act as central players in generating data for the BICCN.

«This is not just a phone book for the brain,» says Margarita Behrens, a Salk associate research professor who helped lead the new BICCN papers. «In the long run, to treat brain diseases, we need to be able to hone in on exactly which cell types are having trouble.»

The special issue of Nature has 17 total BICCN articles, including five co-authored by Salk researchers that describe approaches to studying brain cells and new characterizations of subtypes of brain cells in mice. Some highlights include:

• DNA Methylation Analysis

Story Source:
Materials provided by Salk Institute. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.