Allen Brain Atlas has Enormous Potential to Help Unlock the Mysteries of
Neurological Diseases and Disorders Affecting Millions Worldwide
SEATTLE, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The completion of the Allen Institute
for Brain Science's inaugural project signals a remarkable leap forward in
one of the last frontiers of medical science -- the brain.
The Institute today announced the completion of the groundbreaking
Allen Brain Atlas, a Web-based, three-dimensional map of gene expression in
the mouse brain. Detailing more than 21,000 genes at the cellular level,
the Atlas provides scientists with a level of data previously not
available.
Since humans share more than 90 percent of their genes with mice, the
Atlas offers profound opportunity to further understanding of human
disorders and diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, epilepsy,
schizophrenia, autism and addiction. About 26 percent of American adults --
close to 58 million people -- suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in
a given year.
"This project is an unprecedented union of neuroscience and genomics,"
said philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, who provided
$100 million in seed money to launch the Allen Institute for Brain Science
and its first project, the Allen Brain Atlas, in 2003. "The comprehensive
information provided by the Atlas will help lead scientists to new insights
and propel the field of neuroscience forward dramatically."
Publicly available at no cost, the map shows which genes are active --
or "expressed" -- within the brain and which regions and cells they are
expressed in, thereby linking them to particular brain functions.
"This is a multidisciplinary project of unprecedented scale," said
Allan Jones, the Institute's chief scientific officer. "It combines the
scientific disciplines of math, physics, neuroscience, and genomics to
define where those 21,000 genes are expressed and activated in the brain.
There's no other information set like this."
Key New Findings About the Brain
The project has already led to several significant new findings about
the brain. It reveals that 80 percent of genes are turned on in the brain,
much higher than the 60 to 70 percent scientists previously believed.
It indicates that very few genes are turned on in only one region of
the brain -- paving the way for additional insight about the benefits and
potential side effects of drug treatments. And it shows the location of
genes associated with specific functions, providing scientists with
valuable information about regional brain activity.
"It's an enormous mine of information. Suddenly you can go into a much
more advanced level of analysis," said Catherine Dulac, a Harvard professor
of molecular and cellular biology and a member of the Institute's
scientific advisory board.
"The fact that it is being made publicly available immediately is
absolutely tremendous."
How the Atlas Works
The Atlas gives scientists worldwide the gift of time, providing in one
place an enormous database of information that an individual researcher
could spend a lifetime trying to gather.
Many of the discrete regions of the brain perform similar functions in
all mammals, and greater than 90 percent of all mouse genes have a direct
counterpart in humans. By establishing this baseline of the normal mouse
brain, the Atlas allows researchers to compare the brain with others
altered to mimic neurological and psychiatric diseases found in humans.
Previous atlases have contained anatomic maps showing the location of
various regions of the brain, but little or no information about the gene
activity within them. Others have contained gene information but none have
been nearly as comprehensive as the Atlas, which includes data for every
major structure in the brain for nearly all the genes in the genome.
Even before its announced completion, the Atlas was receiving more than
4 million hits monthly and being accessed by approximately 250 scientists
on any given work day. Users are not required to provide information about
their work, but anecdotal evidence indicates that the Atlas is already
assisting research projects.
"I use it around the clock, night and day. My whole lab does," said
Stanford University neurobiology professor Ben A. Barres, who is using the
Atlas to confirm his team's findings about glial cells, a type of
non-neuronal cell within the nervous system.
"It's completely essential. It's saved us years and years of work,
maybe decades. We could never have done all this, either financially or in
terms of the amount of labor and time. It was just so incredibly generous
of Mr. Allen to do this, and I think it's hard to even overstate what the
payoff is going to be for research."
Future Steps
Going forward, the Institute will shift its focus to human research in
order to answer critical questions about human brain disorders and
diseases. It will seek opportunities to collaborate with scientists on
research programs, offering its state-of-the-art equipment, technological
capacity and a 32,000-square foot facility.
With the view of becoming a self-sustaining entity, the Institute will
be pursuing grants and partnerships with funding agencies and foundations
to advance neurological health issues.
Beyond its groundbreaking scientific potential, the Atlas was completed
under a unique new research paradigm. The team working on the project
included neuroscientists, mathematicians and technical experts recruited
from imminent organizations nationwide.
Through its unique structure and Allen's contribution, the team was
able to focus exclusively on the Atlas, completing the project on time and
under budget and achieving scientific and technological milestones that
many research institutions could not.
The genesis of the Allen Brain Atlas dates back to 2002, when Paul
Allen gathered together leading scientists from around the world and posed
a critical question: "What is the one thing that will make the biggest
difference in the field of brain science?"
Arthur W. Toga, a professor of neurology at the UCLA School of Medicine
and a member of the Institute's scientific advisory board, said the Atlas
is a critical tool in helping to address questions about the brain that
have confounded scientists, philosophers and others for centuries.
"This is a remarkable achievement," he said. "This is the next step in
a tremendous progression in trying to understand the brain and how it
functions."
"As a scientist, how can you ever find something that's more
interesting than the organ in our body which makes us who we are?" Toga
said. "It's the organ that allows us to create opera and great pieces of
art and send a shuttle rocket to the moon. It all came from there."
About the Allen Institute for Brain Science
Located in Seattle, Washington, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Allen Institute
for Brain Science, http://www.alleninstitute.org , was founded in 2001 by
philanthropists Paul G. Allen and Jody Patton to identify and address key
issues in neuroscience, particularly those that can advance the
understanding of human behavior. The Institute anticipates that federal and
state funds, along with private contributions, will provide the foundation
of an ongoing public-private partnership that will facilitate further brain
research. The Institute's first project, the unprecedented Allen Brain
Atlas, is available online at http://www.brain-map.org .
About Paul G. Allen
Investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen creates and advances
world-class projects and high-impact initiatives that change and improve
the way people live, learn, work and experience the world through arts,
education, entertainment, sports, business and technology. He co-founded
Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1976, remained the company's chief
technologist until he left Microsoft in 1983, and is the founder and
chairman of Vulcan Inc. and chairman of Charter Communications, a broadband
communications company. In addition, Allen's multi-billion dollar
investment portfolio includes large stakes in DreamWorks SKG, Oxygen Media
and more than 40 other technology, media and content companies. Allen also
owns the Seattle Seahawks NFL and Portland Trail Blazers NBA franchises.
Named one of the top 10 philanthropists in America, Allen gives back to
the community through the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, whose mission is
to transform lives and strengthen communities by fostering innovation,
creating knowledge and promoting social progress. Allen is also the sponsor
of SpaceShipOne, the first civilian effort to successfully put man in
suborbital space; founder of Experience Music Project, Seattle's critically
acclaimed interactive music museum; the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of
Fame; the $100 million Allen Institute for Brain Science and its
cutting-edge Allen Brain Atlas initiative, and Vulcan Productions, the
independent film production company behind Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven,
the Evolution series on PBS, and the award-winning film series, The Blues,
executive produced by Martin Scorsese in conjunction with Allen and Jody
Patton. Additional information about Allen is available at http://www.vulcan.com
and http://www.paulallen.com .
For more information, press only:
Aaron Blank
206-343-1543
aaronblank@feareygroup.com
Michael Nank
206-342-2200
michaelna@vulcan.com
SOURCE Allen Institute for Brain Science
 back to top
Related links:
http://www.brain-map.org/
http://www.alleninstitute.org/
CONTACT:
Aaron Blank, +1-206-343-1543, or
aaronblank@feareygroup.com, or Michael Nank, +1-206-342-2200, or
michaelna@vulcan.com, both for Allen Institute for Brain Science
|
