Video: http://ignitephoenix.blip.tv/file/1839013/ Event: Ignite Phoenix 3 @ TCA Event Date: February 25th, 2009 I’ve been an entrepreneur for the last few years, but I’d like to tell you about my real passion in life — slicing brains into very thin slices (very quickly), and taking pictures. High-throughput quantitative analysis of neural morphology and connectivity enables awesome insights into human thought. I’ll show lots of pretty pictures and tell dazzling stories.

1. The Mind, seen in Slices
100 billion neurons in the brain
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Each neuron with 7 thousand synapses
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700,000,000,000,000 Connections
Press play....
Out of this
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emerges our
consciousness
We’re trying to
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observe this
structure...

2. We being...
KESM data from David Mayerich at TAMU
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Brain Networks Lab under Dr Choe
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www.research.cs.tamu.edu/bnl
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ATLUM data from Kenneth Hayworth &
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'Bobby' Kasthuri in Lichtman Laboratory at
Harvard
www.mcb.harvard.edu/lichtman/ATLUM/ATLUM_web.htm
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All images are belong to the respective labs
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and are used with permission

3. Road to 3D starts in 2
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4. Knife Edge Scanning
Microscope (KESM)
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5. Step 1: Slice and Image
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6. Step 2: Reconstruct
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7. Phoenix

8. Phoenix

9. Phoenix

10. Automatic Tape-Collecting
Lathe Ultramicrotome (ATLUM)
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11. Step 1: Spool brain on to tape
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12. Step 2: Index and store brain
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13. Step 3: Take Picture in SEM
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14. Step 4: Reconstruct
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15. Phoenix
Zo
ooo
oo
oo
oo
m

16. Phoenix

17. Phoenix
THIS IS YOUR MIND

18. Phoenix

19. Perspective
1/50,000th of the way completed
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but...
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Engineering problems are solvable
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High-throughput reconstruction of neural
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morphology and connectivity is going to
do to neuroscience what the human
genome project has done to genetics

20. Call to Action
What’s required to solve the problem...
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Phoenix
Computer Science
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Biology
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Engineering
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Politics & Policy
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Media
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Fund Raising
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Entrepreneurs
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