Human brain is highly complex biochemically and Allen Human Brain Atlas can help to study; Research
Researchers have found that the human brains are highly complex biochemically and they all share a regular genetic blueprint.
This research has been done by researchers at the US Allen Institute for Brain Science has been published online in the journal Nature.
Researchers in this study have utilized Allen Human Brain Atlas and created a genetic map of the human brain. The researchers measured about 100 million gene expressions in 400 to 500 brain areas per hemisphere using microarray technology while analyzing three brain profiles. They found that the patterns of expression of the genes are similar from brain to brain. Moreover, 84% of all genes are expressed in some region of the human brain.
Researchers have also found that a number of uncharacterized genes working in such brain regions, which have a known functional group of genes. Genes related to the synapses are also active throughout the brain, which shows why the synapses are diverse in nature.
“The tremendous variety of synapses we see in the human brain is quite striking,” said Seth Grant, FRSE, Professor of Molecular Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh and collaborating author on the study. “Mutations in synaptic genes are associated with numerous brain-related disorders, and thus understanding synapse diversity and organization in the brain is a key step toward understanding these diseases and developing specific and effective therapeutics to treat them.”
“This study demonstrates the value of a global analysis of gene expression throughout the entire brain and has implications for understanding brain function, development, evolution and disease,” said Ed Lein, Ph.D., Associate Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science and co-lead author on the paper. “These results only scratch the surface of what can be learned from this immense data set. We look forward to seeing what others will discover.”
The Allen Human Brain Atlas is a multimodal atlas of the human brain that can be used to study not only the healthy brains but also brain related disorders. It can also help to study the comparison between the brains of the humans and the animals.
Reference:
Michael J. Hawrylycz, Ed S. Lein, Angela L. Guillozet-Bongaarts, Elaine H. Shen, Lydia Ng, Jeremy A. Miller, Louie N. van de Lagemaat, Kimberly A. Smith, Amanda Ebbert, Zackery L. Riley, Chris Abajian, Christian F. Beckmann, Amy Bernard, Darren Bertagnolli, Andrew F. Boe, Preston M. Cartagena, M. Mallar Chakravarty, Mike Chapin, Jimmy Chong, Rachel A. Dalley, Barry David Daly, Chinh Dang, Suvro Datta, Nick Dee, Tim A. Dolbeare, Vance Faber, David Feng, David R. Fowler, Jeff Goldy, Benjamin W. Gregor, Zeb Haradon, David R. Haynor, John G. Hohmann, Steve Horvath, Robert E. Howard, Andreas Jeromin, Jayson M. Jochim, Marty Kinnunen, Christopher Lau, Evan T. Lazarz, Changkyu Lee, Tracy A. Lemon, Ling Li, Yang Li, John A. Morris, Caroline C. Overly, Patrick D. Parker, Sheana E. Parry, Melissa Reding, Joshua J. Royall, Jay Schulkin, Pedro Adolfo Sequeira, Clifford R. Slaughterbeck, Simon C. Smith, Andy J. Sodt, Susan M. Sunkin, Beryl E. Swanson, Marquis P. Vawter, Derric Williams, Paul Wohnoutka, H. Ronald Zielke, Daniel H. Geschwind, Patrick R. Hof, Stephen M. Smith, Christof Koch, Seth G. N. Grant & Allan R. Jones, (2012). An anatomically comprehensive atlas of the adult human brain transcriptome. Nature, doi:10.1038/nature11405
