An international team of researchers has created a high-resolution, 3-dimensional map of gene expression in human brains, using donated, whole brains from two males and a single hemisphere from a third man’s brain, according to a new study published last week (September 19) in Nature.
The researchers, led by Michael Hawrylycz of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, created the atlas by assembling transcription data—collected using DNA microarrays—from around 900 precisely cut brain pieces and overlaying them on MRI brain scans of the donated brains taken before dicing. The maps—freely available online—could help scientists test hypotheses of brain function, disease, and evolution.
"By themselves these data do not hold all of the answers for understanding how the brain works," Ed Lein, a neuroscientist at the Allen Institute and co-author of the study, told LiveScience. "However, we hope they serve as a catalyst in human brain research for understanding ...
