BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN)
The BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN) is a major international collaboration, primarily funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), aimed at creating a comprehensive, high-resolution reference atlas of the diverse cell types in the human brain and other species.
Objectives and Goals
BICAN builds upon the work of the previous BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN) and is one of the NIH BRAIN Initiative's "transformative projects". Its primary goals include:
- Generating Comprehensive Atlases: To produce detailed maps of brain cell types—including neurons, glia, and other non-neuronal cells—complete with their molecular, anatomical, and functional annotations across the lifespan in human, non-human primates, and mice.
- Developing New Technologies: To advance and utilize cutting-edge, scalable technologies and multi-modal assays for large-scale brain cell research, improving the efficiency and capacity of data generation.
- Establishing a Data Ecosystem: To coordinate and collaborate on a robust data management and sharing infrastructure (including a Coordinating Unit for Biostatistics, Informatics, and Engagement, or CUBIE) to ensure data is broadly accessible to the global research community.
- Providing a Foundational Framework: The resulting atlas will serve as a fundamental knowledge base to enable basic neuroscience research and inform new approaches for understanding and treating brain disorders.
- Mapping Cell Interactions: The project aims to map the interactions between different cell types that are relevant to a wide range of brain disorders.
Significance
The data generated by BICAN will provide researchers with a "parts list" of the brain's cellular makeup and their spatial organization. This foundational knowledge is crucial for understanding how the brain functions in health and disease and is expected to lay the groundwork for developing a new generation of precision diagnostics and therapeutics for neurological and mental health conditions.
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