Genomics on the Brain on 9 September, the Father of the Hydrogen Bomb Passed Away

Home , Decade of the Brain, Nozomi (spacecraft)

2003 in context Neuroscience GOODBYE Edward Teller Genomics on the brain On 9 September, the father of the hydrogen bomb passed away. He was a controversial he 1990s may have been designated the creating transgenic mice that carry these figure, who was vilified by many physicists after T‘Decade of the Brain’,but they will also be BACs,the researchers can identify — by sight testifying in 1954 that Robert Oppenheimer, remembered as the time when genomics — the cells in which a gene of interest is nor- leader of the wartime Manhattan Project, was a came to the fore.This year,neuroscience and mally active,and can work out how these cells security risk. Teller later championed President genomics teamed up in projects that promise connect with the rest of the brain. The same Ronald Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ missile-defence to propel the study of the brain into the realm BACs can also be used to introduce other initiative. But colleagues at the Lawrence of‘big science’. genetic modifications into these cells,provid- Livermore National Laboratory, co-founded by Working on Parkinson’s disease? One of ing a unique tool to investigate their biology. Teller, say that he should also be remembered the projects that surfaced this year might pro- GENSAT’s first images can already be seen for his passion for teaching physics. vide you with a transgenic mouse that offers on its website,which was launched in October fluorescent neurons in key neural pathways. alongside a paper introducing the project Galileo Another could offer you structural brain (S. Gong et al. Nature 425, 917–925; 2003). One of NASA’s most successful planetary images along with DNA samples from GENSAT scientists aim to study some 300 probes took a suicide dive into Jupiter on patients. Still stuck for inspiration? Another genes each year, through funding from the 21 September. Having nearly run out of fuel, project will map all of the active genes in the National Institute of Neurological Disorders Galileo was aimed straight at the planet to neural pathways of your choice. prevent it from accidentally crash-landing on One of the most exciting Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, which some initiatives owes its existence to suspect may harbour extraterrestrial life. The the world’s fourth-richest man, craft tore apart as it descended into the gassy Paul Allen,who co-founded the planet’s atmosphere; its last data transmission

A. TOGA/UCLA/SPL software giant Microsoft. In arrived on Earth 52 minutes later. September, he announced the donation of US$100 million Dolly the sheep over five years to create the At the relatively tender age of six, Dolly died. Allen Institute of Brain Science After falling ill of a progressive lung disease, in Seattle, Washington. Its first the first mammal to be cloned from an adult endeavour will be to produce a cell was put down for welfare reasons. Dolly comprehensive atlas of gene also suffered from arthritis, but it is unclear activity in the mouse brain. whether her ailments were a side effect of her This will be a huge task — unusual genesis. Dolly the icon lives on, stuffed, two-thirds of the 30,000-or-so All in the mind: a composite image of 20 healthy brains at the Royal Museum in Edinburgh. genes in the mouse are expressed highlighting areas of variation (pink) between the subjects. in its brain. Indeed, the project Japan’s satellites could generate petabytes of data — the same and Stroke in Bethesda,Maryland. Mission controllers were forced to say ‘adios’ order of magnitude as all of the information This year also saw the launch of the Ger- to Japan’s Midori-II Earth observing satellite, currently held on the Internet. No wonder, man-led Human Brain Proteome Project, also known as ADEOS-II, in October, just ten then, that the Allen Institute has hired Mark which will catalogue all of the proteins found months into a three-year mission. Its electronics Boguski,one of the world’s foremost bioinfor- in the brain.And in the summer,the Interna- are thought to have been blasted by solar maticians,as its founding director. tional Consortium for Brain Mapping, flares. The following month, a Japanese rocket The Allen Brain Atlas picks up from which since 1993 has been compiling a data- carrying two spy satellites was forced to self- another project with similar goals: the base of structural images of human brains — destruct ten minutes after launch when its Brain Molecular Anatomy Project covering both healthy individuals and boosters failed to separate. And Nozomi, (BMAP), launched by the US National Insti- patients with neurological or psychiatric dis- Japan’s first planetary mission, ran out of fuel tutes of Health in 1998.“It was too early,”says orders — launched itself as a neuroscience in December and officially missed its target of Boguski. “Back then we didn’t even know resource. Most of the subjects represented in Mars — completing a miserable year for the how many genes there were.” And whereas the database have also provided blood sam- nation’s space programme. BMAP would have taken decades to finish ples, which is a boon for researchers who the task,Boguski and his colleagues are refin- want to investigate the association between And if we’re not careful… ing high-throughput methods that should particular genetic profiles and unusual brain Atlantic cod were officially declared endangered allow them to complete their atlas by 2006. structures seen in various diseases. by Canada, and stocks have also crashed in The Allen Institute’s initiative will show Now that these projects — and related the North Sea — where warming waters are you where all of the genes in the mouse brain initiatives focusing on particular brain reducing larval survival, adding to the effects of are expressed, but if you’re interested in gene processes or regions — are up and running, overfishing. Cod are not alone. The number of activity in individual brain cells, your perhaps it’s time to commission a sequel to chimpanzees and gorillas in West Africa has favourite project is likely to be GENSAT — the Decade of the Brain. I plunged by about half over the past 20 years, the Gene Expression Nervous System Atlas. Alison Abbott researchers revealed this year. If current trends GENSAT’s scientists, led by Nat Heintz of Allen Brain Atlas ± www.brainatlas.org continue, hunting, habitat destruction and Ebola Rockefeller University in New York, place BMAP ± trans.nih.gov/bmap fever will drive them to the brink of extinction each gene under investigation into a bacterial GENSAT ± www.gensat.org within a decade. More than 12,000 species of artificial chromosome (BAC), along with a Human Brain Proteome Project ± www.hbpp.org plants and animals face a similarly bleak future, genetic element that stitches a fluorescent tag International Consortium for Brain Mapping according to the World Conservation Union. onto the protein encoded by the gene. By ± www.loni.ucla.edu/ICBM