AnatomyWorks (AW) is developing electronic atlases of the human body in a collaborative project with Johns Hopkins University (JHU). In this application, we propose to develop a multi-scale, multi-modal atlas of the human nervous system. Our atlas will be highly unique, as it will serve as a portal for various types of content associated with the brain anatomy and neuroscience. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop a new cloud-based platform, which will be used for education, anatomical references, and case-report systems for medical experts, neuroscience researchers, as well as the general public. In this grant period, we will develop and test several types of diverse contents, which will be linked to the coordinates and structural labels inside the atlases. These include; 1) more than 5,000 clinical MRI cases with various types of diseases which are being cataloged in Dr. Mori's lab and 2) an extensive pathology library of brain diseases in Dr. Troncoso's lab in Department of Pathology. In addition, we will further broaden the contents by linking Elsevier's huge resources of copyright materials (paper-based textbooks) and ScienceDirect database. These contents will be delivered through AW's atlas interface called BrainKnowledge at https://brainknowledge.anatomyworks.org, which was developed in our Phase I study. In this Phase II study, we will complete our first version of the product by accomplishing the following aims;
Aim 1 : Continued development of the reference atlas framework: As the comprehensive ex vivo MR imaging and subsequent serial histology sectioning are being completed in JHU, AW is receiving these materials under a license agreement. AW and JHU will work together to define volumes, surfaces, and names of various structures and deploy them as anatomical referencing materials in the BrainKnowledge platform based on the latest web interface and database technologies.
Aim 2 : Linkage of the content to the cloud-based BrainKnowledge interface, testing, and feedback: We will link above-mentioned contents to our BrainKnowledge. A system for fee-based user registration, user authentication and management, and content delivery will be developed and tested. The service will be released to collaborators to obtain feedback and improve the interface.
Aim 3 : Distribution of atlas resources and cloud platforms: Our atlas resources and cloud technologies have been attracting interests from several companies and organizations. We continue to develop these resources to further broaden the scope of licensing users.
Aim 4 : Testing of user contribution to BrainKnowledge:
Aims 1 -3 are designed to create and distribute our contents to users. However, the real power of the cloud platform is to create the platform for user contributions and interactions. Through modern design for application programing interfaces, we will develop such a platform.
We will develop a cloud-based multi-scale electronic atlas of the human brain, which identifies more than 500 structures and each structure is linked to various sources of information about the brain anatomy and functions, as well as pathological cases.
