Laser Capture Microdissection and Microarray Profiling of Human Prenatal Brain Development
The BrainSpan atlas of the developing human brain is designed as a foundational resource for studying transcriptional mechanisms involved in human brain development. The resource is the outcome of an ARRA-funded grant through the National Institutes of Health to a consortium consisting of the Allen Institute for Brain Science; Yale University; the University of Southern California; Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging; and the University of California, Los Angeles, with strong collaborative support from the Genes, Cognition and Psychosis Program, which is part of the Intramural Research Program of NIMH, NIH.
A major component of BrainSpan is genome-wide transcriptional profiling aimed at the identification of transcriptional programs differentially active at different stages of brain maturation throughout development. One data modality included in this atlas is laser capture microdissection and subsequent microarray profiling of finely dissected tissue samples from subdivisions throughout the prenatal brain (mid-prenatal stage, 19-24 post-conception weeks (pcw)). This white paper describes the methods and processes used to generate this gene expression data.
