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Transforming the understanding
and treatment of mental illnesses.

The BRAIN Initiative® Cell Atlas Workshop: From Single-Cell Genomics to Brain Function and Disorders—Data Integration and Annotation

Date

January 16–18, 2024

Location

Virtual

Overview

A vast amount of single-cell genomic profiling data (>100 million cells) has been generated to date from human and other mammalian brains by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative - Cell Census Network (BICCN) and the Cell Atlas Network (BICAN) and the broad research community to characterize brain cell types and states across lifespan and diseases. These information-rich data represent a tremendous research advancement, which engenders new and essential opportunities for data analysis, integration, and annotation.

This workshop was a 3-day interactive event with targeted and coordinated presentations, panel discussions, and demonstrations with the following goals:

  1. Foster the development of data standards for the integration and annotation of single-cell genomics data.
  2. Systemize and automate the process of data to information to knowledge and develop pipelines where feasible
  3. Shed new insights on brain cell functional studies by using cell atlasing data and cell type-specific targeting tools.
  4. Develop strategies with brain disease research communities to maximally leverage BICCN/BICAN data.  
  5. Develop a community roadmap for the analysis and annotation of single-cell data.

The overarching BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlasing Program goal is to build reference brain cell atlases that will be widely used throughout the research community, providing a molecular and anatomical foundational framework for the study of brain function and disease. 

Recordings

Day 1

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Day 2

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Day 3

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Sponsored by

  • NIH BRAIN Initiative Office of the BRAIN Director
  • National Institute of Mental Health's Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science

More information