Bridging Function, Connectivity, and Transcriptomics of Mouse Cortical Neurons

This project seeks to elucidate the concept of the brain cell type and its relation to the brain architecture and function, by establishing links between molecular and anatomical cell types, circuit connectivity, and functional neural activity in the mouse primary visual cortex (V1). We will record activity of neurons, use multiplexed fluorescence in-situ hybridization (mFISH) to identify their cell types as defined by gene expression, analyze neuronal morphologies and connectivity using Electron Microscopy (EM) reconstruction of the V1 circuit, and release the resulting data and knowledge as a free atlas for the community. The findings and data from this project will serve as foundational resources for future scientific studies and biomedical applications aiming to leverage the relations between brain cell types, circuit structure, and its function.