Transcriptomics

Recent articles

Two slides feature human brains, with a third slide featuring the silhouette of a brain.

Exclusive: Recruitment issues jeopardize ambitious plan for human brain atlas

A lack of six new brain donors may stop the project from meeting its goal to pair molecular and cellular data with the functional organization of the cortex.

By Calli McMurray
9 May 2025 | 6 min listen
Astrocytes in a mouse brain.

Unexpected astrocyte gene flips image of brain’s ‘stalwart sentinels’

The genetic marker upends the accepted orientation of non-star-like astrocytes in the glia limitans superficialis.

By Lauren Schenkman
28 March 2025 | 5 min read
Research image of cell types in the human brain.

Single-cell genomics technologies and cell atlases have ushered in a new era of human neurobiology

Single-cell approaches are already shedding light on the human brain, identifying cell types that are most vulnerable in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, for example.

By Ed Lein, Hongkui Zeng
24 March 2025 | 7 min read
Composite of brain imaging techniques.

Thanks to new technologies, neuroscientists have more direct access to the human brain than ever before

Model systems continue to offer us tremendous insight, but it’s time for basic researchers to train their sights on the human brain. If I were starting my career today, I would focus on human neurobiology.

By Joshua R. Sanes
17 March 2025 | 7 min read
Research image of gene expression.

Sequencing study spotlights tight web of genes tied to autism

The findings, shared in a preprint, help to illuminate how a large and heterogeneous group of genes could be involved in autism.

By Katie Moisse
13 March 2025 | 5 min read
A repeated DNA strand extends farther from the left side of the image with each iteration.

Huntington’s disease gene variants past a certain size poison select cells

The findings—providing “the next step in the whole pathway”—help explain the disease’s late onset and offer hope that it has an extended therapeutic window.

By Angie Voyles Askham
16 January 2025 | 6 min read
Six different neurons.

Early trajectory of Alzheimer’s tracked in single-cell brain atlases

Inflammation in glia and the loss of certain inhibitory cells may kick off a disease cascade decades before diagnosis.

By Angie Voyles Askham
23 October 2024 | 8 min read

Octopus arm anatomy, molecular makeup revealed in new maps

The datasets provide “a very nice reference” for future functional studies.

By Calli McMurray
25 September 2024 | 1 min watch
A playful cellular map features top-down and bottom-up views of the human brain arranged side-by-side as if they were the earth’s two hemispheres in an old-fashioned map of the world. The brains are colored to suggest land masses and bodies of water.

Knowledge graphs can help make sense of the flood of cell-type data

These tools, widely used in the technology industry, could provide a foundation for the study of brain circuits.

By Michael Hawrylycz
28 May 2024 | 7 min read
Illustration of neurons against a blue background.

Where do cell states end and cell types begin?

High-throughput transcriptomics offers powerful new methods for defining different types of brain cells. But we need to think more explicitly about how we use these data to distinguish a cell’s permanent identity from its transient states.

By Anne E. West
22 April 2024 | 6 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

On the importance of reading (just not too much)

The real fun of being a neuroscientist, and maybe the key to asking and answering new questions, is to think big and take intellectual risks.

By Sheena Josselyn
9 June 2025 | 8 min read
Research image of developing axons in the fly brain.

How developing neurons simplify their search for a synaptic mate

Streamlining the problem from 3D to 1D eases the expedition—a strategy the study investigators deployed to rewire an olfactory circuit in flies.

By Calli McMurray
6 June 2025 | 6 min read
Distorted floppy discs.

NIH autism database announcement raises concerns among researchers

The U.S. National Institutes of Health announced a plan to pour $50 million into data science projects intended to investigate the condition’s causes, but the initiative’s short timeline and other atypicalities have prompted questions.

By Angie Voyles Askham
5 June 2025 | 5 min read