Scientists in India say they have built the world’s most detailed 3D map of the human brainstem, a breakthrough that could reshape how doctors understand devastating conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and stroke.
Researchers at the Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, developed the atlas — named Anchor — by combining more than 500 tissue sections from foetal, childhood and adult brains. Unlike costlier molecular imaging techniques, the map was built from high-resolution microscope images, identifying over 200 clusters of brain cells and nerve pathways using eight distinct chemical markers.
The brainstem, though a tiny fraction of the brain’s overall mass, controls breathing, heartbeat, sleep and movement, making it essential to survival. Its dense, complex structure has long made it one of neuroscience’s hardest regions to study in detail, with pathologists traditionally examining only a handful of tissue samples from an organ containing roughly 86 billion neurons.
Shubha Tole, a neuroscientist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, described the project as a landmark achievement that places India at the centre of global neuroscience research. Rebecca Folkerth, a neuropathologist affiliated with Harvard Medical School and New York University who collaborated with the Indian team, said the atlas achieves something she had long hoped for in her career — matching whole-brain scans with microscopic anatomy.
The tool allows researchers to zoom seamlessly from a full MRI scan down to individual neurons while preserving their exact spatial position. It has been made freely available online for scientists, neurologists and surgeons worldwide.
Partha Mitra of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York said such detailed atlases could have a transformative effect on the study of neurological disease, potentially revealing cell-by-cell how conditions like Alzheimer’s and autism alter the brain, and shedding light on how infections such as COVID-19 cause lasting neurological damage.
Around 20 scientists spent 18 months manually analysing more than 200 brain sections to build the atlas, part of a wider centre that now brings together over 200 researchers and engineers working with international collaborators. While not a diagnostic tool itself, Anchor is expected to guide new research questions and help surgeons navigate one of the brain’s most delicate regions with greater precision.
Source: bbc.co.uk