Scientists Map the Brain, Gene by Gene

Scientists at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle are working on a huge project to make a detailed map of the human brain, gene by gene. The Allen Brain Atlas would describe the cortex of the brain at the level of specific genes and neurons. If the project is successful, scientists will be able to use the maps to decipher thousands of genes that make the human brain. The scientists at the institute believe that mapping the brain may eventually lead to new techniques in diagnosing and treating of various mental conditions.
Since scientists were talking about possibly analazying 20,000 genes, it became clear that it couldn't be done by hand, and the brain map needed to be in the form of a database. If such a database of human brain existed, it would dramatically increase the speed of research.
To draw a genetic map of the brain scientists at the Allen Institute created an advanced system that could process brain tissue and data very quickly, at levels previously unheard of. During the first step the brain is hand-sliced in 5mm pieces and frozen. Next, a special machine further shaves each piece into thousands of slices that are only several microns thick. These slices are then put on bar-coded glass slides. Next, robots sample each slice for a particular gene and then stain it with dye. During the next step robotic microscopes take pictures of each sample. The color and intensity of dye is used to calculate the amount of gene in the sample. The brain map is correlated by gene and location and stored in the database on the institute's servers. When the project is completed, the brain atlas along with advanced tools to analyze the data will be available to all scientists for free. The project is expected to be completed in 2012.
I was really impressed by this article. It shows how advanced contemporary database systems are and how they can be used in different fields, such as medical research, and how database systems can lead to further technological advances in different fields.

References:
1. Scientists Map the Brain, Gene by Gene. By Jonah Lehrer March 28, 2009
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/17-04/ff_brainatlas?currentPage=1
April 17, 2009