In order to catalyze research in developmental neuroscience, the National Institutes of Health Blueprint for Neuroscience Research awarded a contract to the Allen Institute for Brain Science, partnered with researchers at the University of California at Davis, to generate an atlas of gene expression in the developing rhesus macaque brain. This atlas is a free online resource with a unique set of data and tools aimed to create a developmental neuroanatomical framework for exploring the detailed cellular and transcriptional architecture of the developing primate brain with direct relevance for human brain development.

The NIH Blueprint Non-Human Primate (NHP) Atlas consists of a suite of data and informatics resources that are being made available incrementally over the course of the project. These include:

1. Cellular resolution distributions of a set of functionally important and anatomically restricted mRNA transcripts using a standardized high throughput in situ hybridization (ISH) platform.
   1. Developmental analysis on five major brain regions during postnatal developmental periods clinically important for a variety of human neurodevelopmental disorders, includingprefrontal cortex, primary visual cortex, hippocampus, amygdala and ventral striatum.
   2. Serial analysis of cellular marker genes spanning the entire adult rhesus macaque brain, focusing on cellular marker genes, genes with cortical area specificity and gene families important to neural function.
2. High anatomical resolution genome-wide transcriptional profiling of specific brain regions and functional subdivisions of these regions using laser microdissection and rhesus macaque-specific DNA microarrays.
   1. Gross structure transcriptional profiling across postnatal development for prefrontal cortex, primary visual cortex, hippocampus, amygdala and ventral striatum.
   2. Fine structure transcriptional profiling across postnatal development for fine nuclear subdivisions of these same structures.
3. Developmental stage-specific reference series, consisting of high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and Nissl histology to provide a neuroanatomical context for the gene expression data.
4. Web-based tools to allow researchers to query and mine for genes associated with specific functional brain regions and stages of brain development.

These data and tools are designed to provide a valuable public resource for researchers and educators to explore neurodevelopment in non-human primates, and a key evolutionary link between other Web-based gene expression atlases for adult and developing mouse and human brain.

The NIH Blueprint Non-Human Primate (NHP) Atlas, http://www.blueprintnhpatlas.org,
is funded from Federal funds from the National Institutes of Mental Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract HHSN-271-2008-0047-C to the Allen Institute for Brain Science (Seattle, WA). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.