Neuroscience
From today's New York TImes:
Atlas Squeaked: A Complete Map of the Brain of a Mouse
By NICHOLAS WADE
Published: September 26, 2006
The New York Times
Scientists have gained a new window for peering into the brain, courtesy of a $41 million project financed by Paul G. Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft.
The project is an electronic atlas that shows which genes are switched on in neurons throughout the brain of a mouse.
Instead of looking at one gene at a time in one or a few neurons, researchers can now study all the brain genes systematically. And instead of having to visualize each gene experimentally, everything is available online. “I am using it all the time,” said Catherine Dulac, who studies mouse behavior at Harvard. “It’s an extraordinary resource.”
Marc Tessier-Lavigne, an expert on neuronal signaling and vice president for research at Genentech, said he would put the new brain atlas “on a par with the human genome project.” Both are members of the scientific advisory board overseeing the project.
Thomas M. Jessel, a neuroscientist at Columbia University, said after looking at the atlas that it was of high quality and would complement other available brain maps.
“It is likely to be the standard source for the next few years” for people interested in the pattern of gene activation in the brain,” Professor Jessel said.
[ ... Read the full article ... ]
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Anthony H. Risser | neuroscience | neuropsychology | brain
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Neuroscience
The Brain that Squeaked
From today's New York TImes:
Atlas Squeaked: A Complete Map of the Brain of a Mouse
By NICHOLAS WADE
Published: September 26, 2006
The New York Times
Scientists have gained a new window for peering into the brain, courtesy of a $41 million project financed by Paul G. Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft.
The project is an electronic atlas that shows which genes are switched on in neurons throughout the brain of a mouse.
Instead of looking at one gene at a time in one or a few neurons, researchers can now study all the brain genes systematically. And instead of having to visualize each gene experimentally, everything is available online. “I am using it all the time,” said Catherine Dulac, who studies mouse behavior at Harvard. “It’s an extraordinary resource.”
Marc Tessier-Lavigne, an expert on neuronal signaling and vice president for research at Genentech, said he would put the new brain atlas “on a par with the human genome project.” Both are members of the scientific advisory board overseeing the project.
Thomas M. Jessel, a neuroscientist at Columbia University, said after looking at the atlas that it was of high quality and would complement other available brain maps.
“It is likely to be the standard source for the next few years” for people interested in the pattern of gene activation in the brain,” Professor Jessel said.
[ ... Read the full article ... ]
-
Anthony H. Risser | neuroscience | neuropsychology | brain
- Nobel Knockout!
From the Nobel Assemble press release: The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2007 jointly to Mario R. Capecchi, Martin J. Evans and Oliver Smithies for their discoveries of...
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From The New York Times: Gene Found to Switch Off Stem Cells During Aging By NICHOLAS WADE Published: September 6, 2006 Biologists have uncovered a deep link between lifespan and cancer in the form of a gene that switches off stem cells as a person ages....
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From The Globe and Mail:Rampaging mice made more human By CAROLYN ABRAHAM Wednesday, July 6, 2005 Updated at 8:57 AM EDT From Wednesday's Globe and Mail A breakthrough experiment has used a human gene to turn vicious mice into very gentle creatures...
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The New York Times reports that the journal Nature reports that scientists have decoded the dog genome “to a high degree of accuracy.” Scientists can now compare the dog, human, and mouse genome to see what makes a mammal a mammal. Apparently humans...
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I did tell you that I liked brains, but rather than losing myself in the effevescent and vibrant beauty of neurons or brainbows, we rarely get the chance to see a real live fleshy bloody spongy brain. And so I came across this fantastic specimen: That's...