The need for methods to extract accurate, reliable quantitative data on brain structure rapidly has increased substantially, especially with the proliferation of genetically manipulated mice as models_of C.N.S. disorders. Software tools developed under our Human Brain Project P20 consortium MH/DA 52154 define the structural bases for normal and pathologic brain function in animal models of Neuro-AIDS and others neurodegenerative models. In this Phase I STTR application, we will: 1) extend our existing NeuroZoom computer-assisted microscopy application with additional software stereological probes; 2) develop cross-platform access to a quantitative, neuroanatomic database; 3) initiate the development of a stereologically-derived database of key mouse brain structures in the normal brain; and 4) perform a prototypic analysis of a transgenic mouse model of spinal neurodegeneration to document the feasibility of such stereological approaches to pathology in genetically- manipulated mice. We envision three classes of potential commercial customers for these products: 1) laboratories possessing sufficient expertise to carry out the analyses in-house with our software, but require ongoing access to our normative database against which to compare our own mutant mice; 2) biotechnology firms or laboratories developing lines of transgenic mice and outsourcing for their comprehensive structural characterization; and 3) pharmaceutical companies that need assistance in developing an on-site program for their analyses, and require access to the normative database.
There is no available software that incorporates mapping, stereology, databases, Internet access, 3D visualization, and neurocircuitry data in one package. There is also no stereology database for either select regions of the mouse brain, or for a transgenic mouse. There are 3 classes of potential customers: l) laboratories possessing sufficient expertise to carry out the analyses in-house with our software; 2) biotechnology laboratories developing transgenic mice and outsourcing for their comprehensive structural characterization; and 3) pharmaceutical companies that need assistance in developing an on-site program for their analyses.
