Boadilla del Monte (Spain), 23 feb (EFE).-scientific Spanish will create microscopic computerized maps of the brain of people with Alzheimer, with genetic or molecular information, allowing you to recreate simulations in 3D of the disease to see its evolution, trying to delve into its origins and test possible drugs.
Project, led by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientÃficas (CSIC) and the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), will provide the first comprehensive analysis on the Alzheimer, a “book of the brain”, as said Javier de Felipe, director of the initiative today.
Will be to find new ways of addressing this dementia, which Spain affects approximately 650,000 people, researchers developed computer these maps with detailed information on the clinical, genetic, molecular, functional and pathological aspects.
“The first step is the development of computational tools to create a data bank with information clinical, epidemiological, functional neuroimaging and morphological, through integrated information systems,” explained De Felipe.
The initiative has the structure and human and technical resources of the Blue Brain Project, called in Spain project Cajal Blue Brain, whose purpose is to perform reverse engineering of the brain to understand its operation and analyze how is altered to various diseases.
The “Alzheimer project 3 pi (letter of the Greek alphabet)” was born thanks to a collaboration agreement signed last October between the UPM, CSIC, the National Association of Alzheimer and the Foundation Reina Sofia.
Precisely the Spanish Queen today visited the facilities where it develops the project, called “3 Alzheimer pi” because it is supported on three pillars of research to combat this disease: circuits, computing, and cognition.
The Cajal Institute of the CSIC, the Centre of biomedical technology and Supercomputing and visualization of Madrid UPM Center hosting facilities where takes place the project.
Technological resources that will be used in the same among the “five faces virtual reality cave”, which allows you to play the progression of the disease by three-dimensional simulations.
In addition, the “2 Magerit” will be used, a supercomputer capable of recreating the brain in a virtual manner with a capacity of 103,4 trillion operations per second, and the laboratory of Corticales circuits, with a microscope that makes serial reconstructions of the brain automatically.
Well from brain samples – both affected by the Alzheimer as healthy – get three-dimensional figures by computer and rebuild the neural synapses and know its strength is achieved (the Alzheimer cause cognitive impairment and the disappearance of these neural connections).
This is one of the steps for the realization of microscopic brain maps.
Also used the laboratory of cognitive neuroscience and computational of the Center for biomedical technology at the UPM, which has one of the two magnetoencefalógrafos which are Spain and measured directly and non-invasive neural activity.EFE
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