ANCHOR

About ANCHOR:

• ANCHOR stands for Atlas of Neurochemical Characterization of the human brainstem with 3D Reconstruction.
• It is the world’s most detailed 3D Atlas of human brainstem.
• It comprises the most comprehensive, multi-modal, 3D maps and atlases of the human brainstem to date spanning from prenatal period to childhood and adult brains.
• Developed by: It is developed by Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre (SGBC) at IIT Madras.
• Key Features:
  • It encompasses more than 200 brainstem nuclei and fiber tracts, reconstructed from hundreds of serial sections. 
  • Technology used: This is a multimodal framework integrated MRI, histology and detailed chemo-architecture.
  • It has reconstructed by eight complementary immunostains were overlaid across more than 500 sections, enabling detailed mapping.
  • It allows users to zoom in nearly 1,000 times closer than MRI and allows researchers to look at cells at the micron level.
• Significance
  • It acts as a navigational map of the brain which could allow scientists to explore the landscape of neural networks and cellular clusters and study how the brain changes from the fetal stage to old age.
  • It could eventually help reveal how diseases affect different regions of the brain, allowing clinical practitioners a faster way to catch neurodegenerative diseases.