$74,756,329
to SALK INSTITUTE FOR BIOLOGICAL STUDIES, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, THE
CENTER FOR MULTIOMIC HUMAN BRAIN CELL ATLAS - ABSTRACT UNDERSTANDING CELL IDENTITIES AND THEIR SPATIAL DISTRIBUTIONS THROUGHOUT DIFFERENT REGIONS OF THE HUMAN BRAIN IS A FUNDAMENTAL STEP WHEN TRYING TO INTEGRATE PHYSIOLOGICAL, BEHAVIORAL, NEUROCHEMICAL AND MOLECULAR DATA. AT PRESENT, ALTHOUGH MAJOR CATEGORIES OF THE CELL-TYPES PRESENT IN THE HUMAN BRAIN HAVE BEEN DEFINED MOLECULARLY, THE DIFFERENT SUBTYPES WITHIN THESE CATEGORIES ALONG WITH THEIR LOCATIONS ARE FAR FROM UNDERSTOOD. GENE EXPRESSION DRIVES CELL PROGRAMS AND STATES THAT UNDERLIE DISTINCT BRAIN FUNCTIONS. OPEN CHROMATIN AND MODIFIED HISTONES MARK GENE-REGULATORY ELEMENTS THAT CONTROL CELL TYPE-SPECIFIC GENE EXPRESSION PATTERNS. CYTOSINE DNA METHYLATION (MC) IS A STABLE EPIGENOMIC SIGNATURE THAT PERSISTS IN POST-MITOTIC CELLS THROUGHOUT THEIR LIFETIME, DEFINING THEIR CELLULAR IDENTITY. SINGLE-CELL GENE EXPRESSION, OPEN CHROMATIN PROFILES AND DNA METHYLATION ASSAYS HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY USED TO IDENTIFY DISTINCT CELL TYPES IN AN UNBIASED FASHION IN HETEROGENEOUS TISSUES INCLUDING THE HUMAN BRAIN. THIS UM1 PROPOSAL BUILDS ON OUR EARLIER SUCCESSES IN MOUSE BRAIN MAPPING TO PRODUCE DETAILED SINGLE-CELL MULTIMOMIC AND SPATIAL CELL MAPS AT THE SINGLE-CELL LEVEL ACROSS 100 ANATOMICALLY DEFINED REGIONS IN THE HUMAN BRAIN. PROFILING HUMAN BRAIN SAMPLES WILL PERMIT THE DISCOVERY OF UNIQUE GENE EXPRESSION PATTERNS FOR EACH MOLECULARLY-DEFINED CELL TYPE, IDENTIFY THEIR SPATIAL ORGANIZATION, AND THEIR SPECIFIC NON-CODING DNA REGULATORY REGIONS. MULTI-MODAL INTEGRATION BETWEEN EPIGENOMIC AND TRANSCRIPTOMIC SIGNATURES WILL ALLOW THE IDENTIFICATION OF NEW CELL TYPES AND UNIQUE CELL-TYPE MARKERS THAT WILL RAPIDLY BE MADE AVAILABLE TO THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY. THIS UM1 PROJECT WILL ALSO PROVIDE NEW TOOLS FOR GENETIC ACCESS OF PREVIOUSLY INACCESSIBLE BRAIN REGIONS AS WELL AS FACILITATE THE FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF GENETIC VARIANTS ASSOCIATED WITH NEUROPSYCHIATRIC AND NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS.
Verbatim from USAspending.gov. Capitalization, abbreviations, and codes are unchanged.
What the model surfaced from this award
Map human brain cell types and their spatial locations using single-cell genomics and epigenomics across 100 brain regions.
Foundational neuroscience infrastructure enabling discovery of cell-type markers and genetic variants linked to neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders.
Drives demand for single-cell sequencing platforms, bioinformatics tools, and specialized lab reagents from commercial biotech vendors.
U.S. leadership in high-resolution brain mapping and cell-type discovery supports competitive advantage in neuroscience research and drug development.
Generated by award_classification v2.0.0 via claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 on 2026-05-15. Cost: $0.002835.
- USAspending.gov — all awards for this UEI →
- SAM.gov entity registration →
- Award record ingested from usaspending. Source identifier ASST_NON_UM1MH130994_075.
The Buildout does not edit federal records. Any inaccuracy reflects the upstream source; it will update here when corrected there.