Washington State Biomedical Association

March Meeting of the WSBA

The Washington State Biomedical Association met March 18 at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. It was a first-rate opportunity to see the equipment used to support cutting edge research.

After an excellent dinner of gourmet pizza and salad, the Engineering Manager, Cliff Slaughterbeck, PhD., gave a talk entitled, “This is Your Brain. This is Your Brain on the Internet,” which described their ongoing project of creating a three-dimensional map of active genes in the adult mouse brain. He also talked a little about an upcoming project to map the human brain. Afterwards,  he led two separate groups on a tour of the facilities, showing us the equipment (some of which he had designed himself) used to process and digitize the mice brains.

Much more information about the Allen Institute can be found at www.alleninstitute.org.

Information about the Allen Brain Atlas can be found at www.brain-map.org, where the Allen Institute research is made public. Both sites, especially the brain map site, are worth a look.

The WSBA would like to thank Viki Phillips, Support Engineer,  Cliff Slaughterbeck, Engineering Manager and the Allen Institute for Brain Science for such an informative and enjoyable meeting.