The 21 studies in the block of papers can be roughly divided into five categories: What Lein and the rest of the consortium, consisting of a global team from Seattle to Stockholm, wanted to explore was how different these transcription patterns were between cells in the brain. This is a complex process – the base material of an origami crane is a sheet of paper, but what you do with that paper is what gives complexity to the final product. BICCN explored transcription, a step in which the basic genomic blueprint is converted into RNA. Together, these processes are called gene expression. Converting these blueprints into the proteins and structures that make up our cells involves a two-stage process – transcription and translation. While every cell in our body carries the same genome, passed down from our parents, the information in our DNA represents a blueprint of what the cell could become. The human brain’s structural details are well known to science, but with roughly 170 billion cells packed into a 3-pound lump, the variety and complexity within the brain has remained a mystery. Each part of the brain is its own complex thing and looking at one part of the brain only gives you a very small answer about what the function and structure of the whole brain is,” said Lein in an interview with Technology Networks. By an order of magnitude, at least, more than other organs. “The brain is by far the most complex organ. The papers widen the scope of what neuroscientists can study, say experts in the field.Įd Lein, a senior investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science – which played a significant role in eight of the papers – is well aware of the challenge that faced his team at the project’s outset. Features of the human brain that separate us from our nearest relatives – gorillas and chimpanzees.Detailed maps of how our genes are regulated in brain cells – and how that regulation links to 19 different brain traits and diseases.The discovery of a new type of brain cell – the splatter neuron.The identification of over 3000 cell types spread across the brain.Some of the research’s highlights include: The Brain Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN), a subdivision of the NIH’s multi-billion-dollar BRAIN Initiative, has shown off its rich results in a glut of 21 papers published across three journals: Science, Science Advances and Science Translational Medicine. Now a similarly ambitious project to map the human brain at a genetic level has delivered on its objectives. While the project helped advance technologies like brain implants and created digital maps of pockets of the brain, it never came close to achieving its original goal. The recently completed Human Brain Project originally set a goal of simulating the brain – with a target date of 2019. The history of neuroscience is littered with stories of researchers and entrepreneurs underestimating the brain’s complexity. The project includes a draft genomic atlas of the brain that authors say could boost neuroscience much as the human genome project advanced genomics. A research consortium has published a flurry of papers detailing a “major step forward” in our knowledge of the human brain.
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