The project is part of the Human Cell Atlas: a global collaboration to map and characterize all cells in a healthy human body.

The project will be led by Ed Lein, Ph.D., Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and will be a collaborative effort with the Allen Institute and 11 other institutions.

“There’s a rich field right now exploring these technologies, but typically they’re not compared to one another,” says Lein. “The goal of this project is to try and bring together this entire community to compare their methods.”

The project brings together 15 collaborators to tackle the problem of mapping the molecularly defined cell types in the neocortex: the most complex structure in the brain, in both mouse and human tissues. The work follows on the work established at the Allen Institute in uncovering cell types in the brain and sharing that work as part of the Allen Cell Types Database.

Learn more about the Human Cell Atlas projects on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Facebook page, and on their website.