Amsterdam, 13 July 2009 – Elsevier announced today the launch of the official version of BrainNavigator, a neuroscience research tool developed in collaboration with the Allen Institute for Brain Science and under the editorship of Professor George Paxinos and Charles Watson, Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, Sydney. After unveiling the prototype version at the Society for Neuroscience's Neuroscience 2008 tradeshow last November, the rodent brain version is now available at www.brainnav.com.
BrainNavigator is an online, interactive, 3D software tool that maps brain images and anatomy, helping researchers, especially neuroscientists, save time and improve the quality of their daily research. BrainNavigator helps locate the position of structures within the brain, similar to a GPS system, making visualization and understanding of the brain easier.
Traditionally, researchers use print atlases to help them identify structures, for example when viewing brain tissue under a microscope. Now, with BrainNavigator, which combines atlas maps in one easy-to-navigate web-based system, researchers can view detailed images of each brain section. Brain images are no longer only shown as flat maps but also as objects with depth. A particular advance is the facility to create virtual sections from the 3D brain model at very high detail and quality to mimic the real situation in the biological tissue in the laboratory.
"Neuroscientists indicated a need for an easy-to-use online system that would allow them to browse, compare and label high-resolution material as well as create virtual sections. And they wanted a way to annotate and share their research with colleagues. These are all features that BrainNavigator offers, so that researchers can work more productively, with deeper insights, and collaborate on new findings", said Johannes Menzel, Publisher of Science Solutions and Content Strategy at Elsevier. "We have had quadruple the number of people we expected when we launched user testing for the product. Feedback has been tremendously positive."
BrainNavigator is a collaboration between Elsevier and the Allen Institute for Brain Science, pairing Elsevier's vast neuroscience content with technology derived from Allen Institute's cutting-edge Brain Explorer® 3D software. Offering both free and subscription-based content, this dynamic new resource represents a promising step towards new discoveries in the advancement of brain research. All users will be able to browse images and structures. Paid subscribers will enjoy using high resolution images, adjustable virtual slicing and having the ability to annotate and save their work and share it with their colleagues globally, among other features. Details regarding BrainNavigator's functionality can be found at www.brainnav.com/info.
This version includes complete information for the rat brain and the mouse brain, and ongoing releases of other species are planned.
"The 3D features of BrainNavigator allow students and scientists to appreciate the neighborhood relation of structures. Importantly, for the first time a detailed ontology of brain structures has been constructed and this will permit scientists to navigate seamlessly between the brain of rat and mouse in the first instance and the human brain when the site is expanded," commented George Paxinos and Charles Watson the Editors-in-Chief of BrainNavigator.
About the Allen Institute for Brain Science
Launched in 2003, the Seattle-based Allen Institute for Brain Science is an independent, 501(c)(3) non-profit medical research organization dedicated to advancing brain research. Started with $100 million in seed money from philanthropist Paul G. Allen, the Institute takes on projects at the leading edge of science - far-reaching projects at the intersection of biology and technology. The resulting data create publicly available resources that fuel discovery for countless other researchers worldwide. The Institute's data and tools are available on the Web free of charge at www.alleninstitute.org.
About the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute
The Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute's work is directed to understanding the integrative actions of the brain and nervous system in health and disease.
The brain and spinal cord control and coordinate everything that we think, speak, feel and do. Damage or disease of the brain produces devastating results. It can leave you unable to move, unable to speak, unable to control even your basic bodily functions. It may leave you with debilitating chronic pain.
The scientists at the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, Sydney, Australia, (www.powmri.edu.au)are dedicated to understanding every aspect of the nervous system. They also focus on translating their research into clinical practice to help diagnose and prevent disease and ultimately to look for curative therapies.
The world leading research covers everything from cells, genes and molecules through to how the elderly walk, and from the tiniest blood vessel to the control of breathing.
About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. Working in partnership with the global science and health communities, Elsevier's 7,000 employees in over 70 offices worldwide publish more than 2,000 journals and 1,900 new books per year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products, such as ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com/), MD Consult (http://www.mdconsult.com/), Scopus (http://www.info.scopus.com/), bibliographic databases, and online reference works.
Elsevier (http://www.elsevier.com/) is a global business headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and has offices worldwide. Elsevier is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc (http://www.reedelsevier.com/), a world-leading publisher and information provider. Operating in the science and medical, legal, education and business-to-business sectors, Reed Elsevier provides high-quality and flexible information solutions to users, with increasing emphasis on the Internet as a means of delivery. Reed Elsevier's ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).