# A multimodal atlas of human brain cell types

> **NIH NIH U01** · ALLEN INSTITUTE · 2021 · $3,468,455

## Abstract

Abstract:
A Multimodal Atlas of Human Brain Cell Types
 Cell types are the building blocks of the brain, including the neuron types forming specific neuronal
circuits responsible for perception, cognition and action, and the non-neuronal elements performing other
essential roles for proper brain function. A deep understanding of cell types is essential to understand brain
structure and function, as well as mechanisms underlying dysfunction in disorders and injury, which in general
affect specific cellular components either through underlying genetic abnormalities or through selective
vulnerability to insults and injury. Despite the obvious importance of cell types, our understanding of their
diversity, specific properties and discreteness is highly incomplete. This is particularly true in the human brain,
where technological limitations, lack of access to living brain tissues, and the sheer size and complexity has
hampered progress; however, a new set of molecular, anatomical and physiological tools and techniques are
now available that work in brain tissue both from model organisms and human. Standardization and scale-up
of these techniques offers to dramatically change the field by providing a broad and deep understanding of the
building blocks of the human brain, and their conserved and unique features.
 We propose here to bring together an interdisciplinary consortium of world leaders in single cell
transcriptomics, human cellular physiology and anatomy, and neuronal modeling to create a comprehensive
atlas of human brain cell types as a community data resource. The foundation of this atlas is a molecular
classification of cell types based on large-scale single cell transcriptomics, combining a broad survey of cell
types across the entire brain and spinal cord with a deep analysis of the neocortex and hippocampus, regions
in which it is possible to analyze functional and anatomical properties of cells in living neurosurgical resections.
The distribution of these molecular cell types will be mapped on tissue sections using single molecular
multiplex fluorescent in situ hybridization to create a quantitative census of cell types in different brain regions.
To understand the properties of these molecular cell types, we will standardize methods across a consortium
of experts in human slice patch clamp electrophysiology to study the structure, function and molecular
properties of cortical cell types. Finally, we will derive tools to classify cell types, perform neuronal modeling to
understand and predict the function of cell types, and compare cell type properties between mouse and
human. The outcome will be the first detailed atlas of human brain cell types and the development of
standardized methods for human brain study that are likely to catalyze rapid progress in basic and clinical
neuroscience.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10165825
- **Project number:** 5U01MH114812-05
- **Recipient organization:** ALLEN INSTITUTE
- **Principal Investigator:** Ed Lein
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $3,468,455
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-20 → 2022-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10165825

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10165825, A multimodal atlas of human brain cell types (5U01MH114812-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10165825. Licensed CC0.

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