WHAT’S NEW – LATEST DATA RELEASE NOVEMBER 3, 2011

The latest updates to the online public resources available through the Allen Brain Atlas data portal were released on November 3, 2011. These include launch of the new Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas; upgrade of the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas; and feature enhancements and data additions to three other resources.

Highlights include:

• ALLEN BRAIN ATLAS portal’s centralized, multi-data set search has been enhanced with a differential search function that allows users to retrieve genes with enriched expression in a structure of interest from multiple data sets simultaneously. This search function currently covers quantified in situ hybridization data from the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas and normalized microarray data from the Allen Human Brain Atlas
  
  
• The ALLEN Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas has been launched with initial data and feature sets. Features of this first data release include:
  • High-resolution axonal projection maps labeled by rAAV tracers and visualized with serial two-photon tomography from 27 brain regions
  • Comparison of viral (rAAV) and conventional (BDA) tracers in specific brain regions
  • Transgenic characterization for 95 Cre and other driver lines with multiple histological methods
  • Set of anatomic reference data
  
  
• The ALLEN Mouse Brain Atlas has been significantly enhanced with content and feature updates including:
  • Enhanced differential and correlative search functions to allow unique user-defined parameters
  • Upgraded, fully digitized and interactive reference atlas with revised full-resolution images (original 2008 drawings remain available)
  • Upgrade to Brain Explorer® 2 3-D viewer with expanded anatomic detail and features
  
  
• The ALLEN Human Brain Atlas has been expanded with new data and additional tools that facilitate comparisons between brains or probes including:
  • First batch of microarray data from a third brain (110 new samples)
  • Projection of cortical expression data onto a standard fully inflated surface, allowing direct visual comparison of gene expression profiles between brains
  • Interactive, rotating 3-D thumbnail views of gene expression patterns, allowing spatial comparison of gene expression profiles between probes
  
  
• NIH Blueprint Non-Human Primate (NHP) Atlas now offers microarray data and associated tools. Updates include:
  • Microarray data for 60 anatomic structures at four postnatal developmental stages
  • Interactive heat map visualization of microarray data with correlative, differential and temporal searches
  • Additional in situ hybridization data generated serially across complete hemispheres
  • Corresponding MRI available for download
  
  
• BrainSpan atlas of the developing human brain has been expanded with additional data and new search and visualization features. Updates include:
  • Microarray data for 287 structures isolated by LCM from a 21 pcw brain
  • Interactive heat map visualization of microarray data with correlative and differential searches
  • Anatomic reference atlas for 21 pcw including 81 annotated coronal sections, high-resolution Nissl images and interactive graphical atlas viewer

Our next public release will be on March 8, 2012.