From the human genome to the human brain cell atlas.

The BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN) is building an evolving basal ganglia reference that integrates cell identities, anatomy, and multimodal evidence across species.

• Why it matters: A federated, reference atlas is needed to connect brain organization with function, variation, and disease, addressing gaps in how cell types map to anatomy.
• What they did: BICAN integrates cell identities, anatomical context, and multimodal evidence across species, using the basal ganglia atlas as a model for federated reference building.
• The result: This approach enables a growing framework for studying brain organization, function, variation, and disease, analogous to the Human Genome Project.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.