With an investment of $500 million, the U.S. N.H. launched "Brain Project 2.0", which will map the most complete human brain cells in history

The brain is the most complex organ in the human body and one of
the most important.

What are all the cell types of the brain? How do these cells connect to each other? What changes occur in the way the brain works during the disease? There are too many questions to answer, and more critically, too many diseases are closely related to brain health, and delving into the brain has great implications
for the development of innovative therapies.

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

The Brain Project is a major U.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the main research institute of the Brain Project, and there are many disciplines from many countries and regions around the world, covering biology, physics, engineering, clinical medicine and many other disciplines, from the Salk Institute, to Duke University, to the Broad Institute of MIT-Harvard University
.

Back in 2014, the first phase of the Brain Project, the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Consortium (BICCC), was launched, which focused on developing high-throughput, high-precision research tools to characterize and classify brain cell types
.

In 2017, the BICCC project was further expanded to become the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN), which aims to further optimize brain cell type classification and identify and number
different cell types in mammalian brains on the basis of integrating the molecular, morphological, physiological and anatomical properties of brain cells.

The number of cells in the human brain is tens of billions, and only by understanding the composition of brain cells can we better understand the working mechanism of the brain and explore the pathogenesis of related diseases
.

The BICCN project is somewhat similar to the census, which analyzes and records comprehensive information such as the shape, characteristics, number, location, and electrical activity signals of all brain cells of various types, and then catalogs
the resulting information.

"At present, the important challenge we face in the study of brain-related diseases is the lack of the cells affected by the disease and the way the cells connect with each other, so it is difficult to achieve targeted treatment 'in a targeted manner
'.

▲Figure | Human Primary Motile Cortical Cell Atlas Mapped by the BICCN Project (Source: Allen Institute)

With BICCN, researchers have completed the mapping of brain cell types in some mammalian primary motor cortexes, including humans, at the molecular level, which also means that the first phase of the "brain project" research work has been completed, and the successful implementation of BICCN has laid a solid foundation
for the smooth development of the next step of research.

This year, the second phase of Project Brain, the BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN), was launched, with the goal of mapping a complete map of human brain cell types within the next 5 years
.

Back at the beginning of the year, John Ngai published a commentary article on Cell titled "BRAIN 2.

▲Figure | the three major research topics of "Brain Project 2.

Recently, the National Institutes of Health announced that it will provide more than $500 million in new funding to continue the in-depth research work
of the "Brain Project 2.

In the "Brain Plan 2.

In addition to "mapping the whole cell of the human brain," the National Institutes of Health will provide a $30 million grant early next year for "building a microconnectivity map of the mammalian brain.
" At the same time, $36 million in research funding will be allocated for "developing tools and technologies to precisely target all types of cells in the brain" to develop viral vectors and lipid nanoparticles to locate and genetically tune specific types of brain cells
.

"Currently, the work on Project Brain 2.
0 has just begun, and we will study hundreds of human brains next
.
At the same time, the research we are doing now is of great significance, and it will completely disrupt the way people conduct neuroscience research in
the future.
John Ngai said
.

Project Brain is a fairly "money-burning" and "time-consuming" super-large neuroscience project
.
As of now, the project has lasted 9 years, and the total investment amount of the National Institutes of Health has reached $2.
5 billion, and it is expected to reach $5.
2 billion by the end of 2026.

As another major international scientific research project after the "Human Genome Project", the implementation of the "Brain Project" will revolutionize the understanding of the working mechanism of the human brain and will strongly promote the development of innovative therapies for various brain diseases and brain-related diseases for the benefit of human health
.

Resources:

1.
https://doi.
org/10.
1016/j.
cell.
2021.
11.
037

2.