Pushing the Limits of Neuroscience: BARseq Is Mapping the Brain at a Million-Neuron Scale

Researchers developed and enhanced BARseq, a technique to map brain cell connections by gene expression, aiming to improve treatments for neurological conditions. They discovered that blindness alters visual cortex gene expression, and ongoing work seeks to expand BARseq’s capabilities to understand brain connectivity and development.

Exploring how different areas of the brain interact could lead to improved treatments for conditions such as Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, and depression.

In 2019, as a postdoc in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s (CSHL’s) Zador lab, Xiaoyin Chen helped develop a technique to map these connections. BARseq identifies cells in the brain by the genes they use and traces the connecting neural circuitry. Early versions of BARseq mapped gene expression across thousands of neural pathways, using “barcodes” or short snippets of RNA.