If you know how it works, it can be fixed. If Science unravels the mysteries of our brain system, it could find an answer against neurodegenerative pathologies that threaten the quality of life of our longevity, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, among others.
Therefore, having a kind of neuronal ‘census’ would be a great advance. Now a total of 14 articles published by different magazines of the group Science reveal several parts of a high-resolution atlas of human brain cells, the largest ‘map’ of its kind to date.
Through the articles, an international mega project is described, the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative – Cell Census Network (BICCN), which was started in 2017 to study brain cell types and their functions in humans, non-human primates, and rodents. The data “will now allow researchers to address fundamental scientific questions about the human brain and its genetic organization“, states the introduction to the special issue of the magazine.
As many experts assure, it is a material that constitutes a valuable starting point to understand the heterogeneity and variability present in the human brain. “Pick up the different cell types due to their shape, morphology and locationin a global way it is an Atlas of the cell types that exist in the nervous system,” he explains to this medium. Alberto Rábanodirector of the Tissue Bank of the CIEN Foundation attached to the Carlos III Health Institute, which has the support and additional financing of the Reina Sofía Foundation.
“The data collected by the BICCN will now allow researchers to address fundamental scientific questions about the human brain,” writes American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) spokesperson Mattia Maroso in the introductory article. “The era of human brain cellular research is knocking at our door!“