Brain Atlas for Gene Expression
So, seeing that my dissertation is beginning to revolve around differential expression of genes and how they affect behavior, you can imagine why I was excited to learn about the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle and how they are creating a brain atlas detailing which genes are expressed in different brain locations. This is a huge step forward, because it’s been kind of a pain to try and figure out what regions the mu-opioid receptor is expressed in. When you pick brain slices to stain or regions to punch sample and PCR, you need to have a starting point. Hopefully, this investigation will wipe out a lot of uncertainty and provide us with a second Human Genome Project: Brain Style.
You can view the article in Wired Magazine’s 17.04 issue, or at the following link: http://www.wired.com/print/medtech/health/magazine/17-04/ff_brainatlas
And if you’re really interested, here’s the link to the Allen Brain Atlas Portal
