February 14, 2013, HFH 4164

The talk will report on progress in the Mouse Brain Architecture Project (http://mouse.brainarchitecture.org).  We are employing a grid-based approach to map neuronal projections in the mouse brain. Each grid point is injected in individual mice with one  of four neuronal tracers (two retrograde, two anterograde). The brains are subsequently processed through a high throughput histology pipeline and imaged using slide scanning microscopy. The resulting data is being released on the web, providing a virtual microscope into these brains, and are also being subjected to computational neuroanatomical methods to extract information about long range projections in the mouse brain. The goal of the project is to provide a comprehensive picture of neuronal projection patterns across the whole mouse brain. The talk will detail ongoing work as well as preliminary findings.

Partha  Mitra received his PhD in theoretical physics from Harvard in 1993.  He  worked in quantitative neuroscience and theoretical engineering at Bell  Laboratories from 1993-2003 and as an Assistant Professor in Theoretical Physics at Caltech in 1996 before moving to Cold Spring
Harbor Laboratory in 2003, where he is currently Crick-Clay Professor of  Biomathematics.  He is interested in developing an integrative understanding of complex biological systems from a “theoretical engineering” perspective, and has organized meetings and symposia on engineering or design principles in biological systems.  His research currently combines experimental, theoretical and informatics approaches to gain an understanding of how brains work.