On Dec. 13, 2023, for the first time ever, an international team of researchers announced they had created a complete cell atlas of a whole mammalian brain. This atlas serves as a map for the mouse brain, describing the type, location, and molecular information of more than 32 million cells and providing information on connectivity between these cells.

The mouse is the most commonly used vertebrate experimental model used in neuroscience research, and this cellular map paves the way for a greater understanding of the human brain. The findings were funded by the NIH’s Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies’ Initiative, or ‘The BRAIN Initiative’, and appeared in a collection of 10 papers published in Nature.