Toward an integrated framework for a human and mammalian brain cell atlas.

BICAN built a cross-species, multimodal basal ganglia cell atlas integrating single-cell transcriptomics with epigenomic, spatial genomic, multiomic, and developmental data across human and multiple mammals.

• Why it matters: A standardized reference is needed to classify brain cell types consistently across species, enabling comparable study of motor control, adaptive behavior, and neurological disease.
• What they did: The team generated a curated, data-driven taxonomy using large-scale single-cell transcriptomic classification, then integrated it with epigenomic, spatial genomic, multiomic, and developmental datasets plus species-specific anatomical mapping via structural ontologies.
• The result: Coordinated standards for acquisition, metadata, registration, sequencing, infrastructure, visualization, and interoperable annotation were implemented and validated, demonstrating scalable pipelines toward a whole-brain human and mammalian reference.

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