The human brain is complex in terms of its utility - sensing, moving, reading, writing, speaking, thinking and more - and its cellular diversity. The research identified 3,313 cell types, roughly 10 times more than previously known, and the complete set of genes used by each cell type while also mapping their regional distribution in the brain. "The brain cell atlas as a whole provides the cellular substrate for everything that we can do as human beings," said neuroscientist Ed Lein of the Seattle-based Allen Institute for Brain Science, one of the researchers. The various cell types have distinct properties and are likely affected differently in disease, Lein said. "We are only at the very beginning of delineating the complexity of the human brain," said another of the researchers, Bing Ren, director of the University of California, San Diego Center for Epigenomics.

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Persons: Denis Balibouse, Ed Lein, Lein, Trygve Bakken, Bing Ren, Will Dunham, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: Belle Idee University, REUTERS, Rights, U.S, government's National Institutes of Health, Census Network, Allen Institute for Brain Science, Allen, University of California, San Diego Center for Epigenomics, Thomson Locations: Neuropsychiatry, Chene, Bourg, Geneva, Seattle