1.IMGEM (interactive multiple gene expression map)

Current molecular biological techniques allow us to visualize semi-quantitative levels of gene expression in situ. For example, autoradiographical image data from in situ hybridization histochemistry (ISHH) provides a wealth of information, which if made readily available, could be beneficial for neuroscience researchers. However, in most cases, due to the scope of their particular research interests, this ISHH data has been overlooked by the most researchers. Thus, much of the gene expression data tends to get discarded or at best is unavailable for future review by other researchers. For example, one researcher may have a vested interest in the gene expression of brain type nitric oxide synthase (bNOS) in cholinergic nuclei, and other researchers may have interests in serotonergic nuclei. Until this proposal, there has been no significant effort to facilitate the sharing of such bNOS gene expression data among researchers. Thus, for their particular research interests, these investigators will need to repeat the same bNOS ISHH for their publications, essentially “reinventing the wheel.” To eliminate such progress-retarding redundancy, we propose a data sharing system (Interactive Multiple Gene Expression Map, IMGEM) that will be available as an interactive brain map of gene expression. This interactive tool will provide benefits essential for making great strides in the discovery and mapping of gene expression by neuroscientists.

We will employ the technological advantages of electronic databasing by creating a series of brain atlases as follows:

The long-term goal of this project is to gain further insights from the information available (data in the present and future) for brain gene expression mapping; and in so doing, to seek to better apply this collective knowledge for our continued understanding of normal and diseased human brain function. (Supported by NIH, R01AG20011.)