Reacción a "Reactions to the publication of the world's largest high-resolution atlas of brain cells"

Researchers from the Karolinska Institute (Sweden) and the University of California, San Diego (USA) have published in the prestigious research journal Science the most comprehensive catalogue to date of the cellular content of the human brain during its formation, specifically during the first trimester of life (the study by Braun et al.) and in adulthood (the study by Siletti et al. and Li et al.), thanks to the use of state-of-the-art omics techniques. These studies not only describe the spatial distribution of these cell types (the study by Braun et al. and Siletti et al.), but also determine the gene programmes that are specific to each cell type (the study by Li et al.). 

These studies represent a milestone in the history of biology, on a par with the sequencing of the human genome in 2000, and could provide a gateway to understanding the causes of diseases such as autism or psychiatric disorders, which have an embryonic origin, or neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia, Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, which manifest themselves in old age.