Announcements

New with the July release are the initial application release of the Mouse Spinal Cord Atlas, updates to the Human Cortex Study and AGEA, and ten additional Fine Structure Annotation. Now totaling 75 structures, the Fine Structure Annotation lists of the ABA-Mouse Brain comprise approximately 50 genes identified as having expression most specific to the structure of interest based on informatics-based data mining and subsequent manual curation. The newly annotated structures include: Choroids plexus; Third ventricle; Accessory olfactory bulb; Cerebellar cortex, granular layer; Cerebellar cortex, Purkinje layer; Major island of Calleja; Lateral septal nucleus, caudal (caudodorsal) part; Subependymal zone; Taenia tecta; and Triangular nucleus of septum. Genes from the list can be searched under the Mouse Brain project tab.

Detailed reports for these structures are also being generated. They include detailed descriptions of the structure of interest, the characteristics of the 50 genes selective for that region, and correlation tables showing the genetic relationship of the region to the rest of the brain. Fine Structure Annotation Reports completed to date can be found under Nature Precedings or our Community site.

Our next public release will be November 2008 and will include the initial application release of the Developing Mouse Brain Atlas. The Atlas will provide a detailed map of gene activity in the mouse brain as it grows and matures and will be a framework for understanding brain development from neurogenesis and differentiation to the establishment of mature connectivity and function.