STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has announced 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 in November 2008, 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 visualisation and understanding of the brain easier. Traditionally, researchers use print atlases to identify structures. 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.
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 new resource is seen to be a promising step towards new discoveries in the advancement of brain research. While all users will be able to browse images and structures, paid subscribers will be able to use high resolution images, adjustable virtual slicing and the ability to annotate and save their work and share it with their colleagues globally.
This version includes complete information for the rat brain and the mouse brain, and ongoing releases of other species are planned.
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