Brain · Thursday, September 24, 2026
NIH-funded map reads gene activity in 6.3 million brain cells from nearly 1,500 donors
The File desk · Sep 24, 2026, 10:26 AM UTC
Status
Confirmed (NIH release + Nature news, Sept. 23, 2026)
On Sept. 23, 2026, the National Institutes of Health announced a PsychAD Consortium single-cell atlas of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex using more than 6.3 million nuclei from 1,494 donors, spanning Alzheimer’s-related dementias, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Nature news covered the same-day collection of studies.
On Sept. 23, 2026, the National Institutes of Health announced a PsychAD Consortium single-cell atlas of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
The atlas uses more than 6.3 million nuclei from brain tissue of 1,494 donors, from infants to centenarians.
The donors span Alzheimer’s-related dementias, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.
National Institute on Aging director Richard Hodes called it the most comprehensive population-scale molecular mapping of these disorders to date.
Nature news the same day said the work was published in a collection of eight studies, including three papers in Nature.
What is still unknown or disputed
- Clinical translation timeline.
Primary sources
Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.
Source 1
Scientists develop high-resolution molecular maps of Alzheimer’s-related brain disorders
National Institutes of Health · September 23, 2026
This work represents the largest comparative investigation of human brain disorders at single-cell resolution… uses over 6.3 million nuclei from brain tissue specimens from 1,494 donors…
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/scientists-develop-high-resolution-molecular-maps-alzheimers-related-brain-disorders
Source 2
Nature news: single-cell map of brain disorders
Nature · September 23, 2026
The landmark map draws on sequencing data from more than six million individual cells from almost 1,500 people… published today in a collection of eight studies, including three papers in Nature.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02947-x