The NIH allocated $500 million to launch the BICAN program to map the most detailed human and primate brain cells ever created

Recently, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a $500 million program BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN

Known as the "Human Genome Project for the Brain," BICAN will map

The study will combine RNA sequencing and ATAC-seq to assess gene expression and open chromatin regions

The BICAN project is the third phase of the Brain Project

In order to unravel the mysteries of the human brain, in 2013, the U.

In 2017, the BICCC project was further expanded into the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN), which aims to further optimize brain cell type classification based on the integration of molecular, morphological, physiology and anatomical properties of brain cells, identifying and numbering

Single-cell transcriptomics techniques analyze human brain cell type diversity

The BICAN project is the third phase

In addition to the Allen Institute and the Salk Institute for Biology, about 20 institutions from the United States, Europe and Japan are also involved, including the Broad Institute, Baylor Medical School, Karolinska Institutet, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, University of Lyon I, etc

The remaining smaller grants include a $14.

The Allen Institute led the mapping of the first person's brain cells

According to the Allen Institute, about $100 million of the $173 million in funding it receives is dedicated to brain maps

In 2017, the NIH provided nearly $100 million to the Allen Institute to build a brain-referenced brain cell atlas, laying the groundwork

The Allen Institute has a long history of brain mapping, and in 2006 launched a genome-wide image database of gene expression in the mouse brain, Allen Brain Atlas

Transcriptome data aggregated by brain cell type in human (left), marmoset (center) and mouse (right), image credit: Allen Institute

Ed Lein, a senior researcher at Allen's Institute for Brain Science, hopes the data could serve as "a basis for beginning to understand the cellular origins of disease and the links between genes and cell types

Dr Rui Costa, President and CEO of Allen Institute, said: "We are honored to be recognized through these grants and are excited to work with leading researchers around the world to build the first comprehensive map

Feng Guoping, deputy director of the McGovern Institute at MIT and director of model systems and neurobiology at the Broad Institute's Stanley Psychiatric Research Center, said the project aims to reveal the evolutionary purpose of brain cells, but more importantly, to understand brain function and dysfunction

Feng Guoping said that the brain is much more complex than other organs such as the liver, and the cell types of the liver tend to clump together

"This database will significantly improve our research on genetic variants associated with mental and neurological disorders," said
recipient Chongyuan Luo.
"More specifically, datasets can help discover specific cell types and genomic regions
that mediate brain disease risk.
"

Resources:

1.
Allen Institute: Mapping the whole human brain: Allen Institute to lead global collaboration

https://alleninstitute.
org/what-we-do/brain-science/news-press/articles/mapping-whole-human-brain-allen-institute-lead-global-collaboration

2.
NIH Launches $500M Effort to Map Cells of the Human Brain

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2.
Allen Institute Launches $173M NIH-Funded Coalition to Create Human, Primate Brain Cell Atlases

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