The Swiss voice in the world since 1935
Top stories
Stay in touch with Switzerland

EPFL launches interactive 3D atlas of mouse brain

brain
Blue Brain Project leader Henry Markram presenting a brain in 2016. Keystone

Researchers from the Blue Brain Project in Lausanne have announced the unveiling of their ‘Cell Atlas’, a 3D, interactive, constantly-evolving simulation of a mouse brain.

“Like going from hand-drawn maps to digitized versions of satellite images of cities and geographical features – allowing us to navigate the brain the way Google Earth allows us to navigate the earth,” was how one researcher described it.

The Blue Brain Cell Atlas, by integrating data from thousands of brain tissue stainings over five years, offers the first ever digital 3D atlas of every cell, in all 737 regions, of the mouse brain.

A press releaseExternal link by Lausanne’s Federal Institute of Technology EPFL, where the Blue Brain Project is based, described the development as “a major step toward a full simulation of the rodent brain” that will also potentially “massively” accelerate progress in human brain science.

+ More on the background to the brain research happening in Lausanne

“Knowing the circuit components and how they are arranged is an essential starting point for modelling the brain – just as demographic data are essential for modelling a country,” said lead author and atlas creator Csaba Erö.

The project goes further than previous mapping attempts in that it doesn’t just consist of stacks of brain slices, but gathers all available data into numbers and positions for every known cell in the brain in the form of a digitally navigable atlas.

It is also the first atlas that is “dynamic”, EPFL states: that is, as researchers discover more about the rodent brain, they can contribute to improvising the atlas by inserting their findings – something that the authors are keen to encourage.

The Atlas, which can be explored hereExternal link, was published in the Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience journal.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

'Leopard 1 A5' combat tanks in Germany.

More

Switzerland eyes joining EU rearmament programme

This content was published on The Federal Council wants to explore the possibilities of joining the European Union’s €800-billion rearmament programme without compromising Swiss neutrality.

Read more: Switzerland eyes joining EU rearmament programme
Premiere for Swiss Air Force on French National Day

More

Premiere for Swiss Air Force on French National Day

This content was published on On July 14, the Swiss Air Force will take part in the traditional air parade in Paris to mark the French bank holidays with an F/A-18 fighter jet. This is a first for Switzerland.

Read more: Premiere for Swiss Air Force on French National Day
Industry calls for "lean implementation" of the EU treaty package

More

Swiss industry backs EU treaty package

This content was published on The Swiss business umbrella organisation Economiesuisse and the employers' association broadly support the package of agreements negotiated with the European Union.

Read more: Swiss industry backs EU treaty package

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR