A study in the Aug. 25 issue of the journal Neuron maps the activity of genes in the cerebral cortex of mice. Researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health and from Oxford University created an atlas of the more than 11,000 genes in the six layers of brain cells that make up the cerebral cortex.
The resource may lay a foundation for future studies of mouse modules for human diseases, because mice share 90 percent of their genes. The atlas of gene activity in mouse brain is available in an interactive format online.