Monday, October 19, 2009

Whole Brain Catalog


Yesterday I stopped by booth #2106 to see a demonstration of the Whole Brain Catalog, a *free* 3D map of the mouse brain that you can download on your computer. It was quite impressive ... right there on the TV screen, it was possible to slice into this virtual brain and magnify, for example, the hippocampus and view the CA1 neurons, complete with cell bodies and dendrites. Magnify further, and there was a mitochondria and other organelles. All of this interactive and in living color.

This tool allows scientists around the world to upload their own data and then compiles everything into one 3D map that you can view. The project is funded by the Waitt Family Foundation in La Jolla, CA and researchers at the University of California in San Diego (UCSD) designed and developed the map. The group unveiled the project at this year's SfN conference.

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