The Allen Institute for Brain Science project to characterize gene expression in the human cortex presents gene expression patterns at cellular resolution across different cortical regions and human individuals, as measured using colorimetric in situ hybridization. This web-based application allows viewing of indexed image sets searchable by gene, cortical region, donor and tissue characteristics.

The Human Cortex Study specifically contains two gene expression datasets in postmortem tissue:

1. A survey of 1,000 genes in visual and temporal cortices. Genes in this dataset comprise several categories of broad scientific and clinical interest: cortical cell type markers, disease-related genes, genes identified from comparative genomics literature, and gene families important to neural function such as ion channels, G-protein-coupled receptors, and transporters. Each gene is characterized in at least 2 - 6 individuals, and in at least 1 male and 1 female whenever possible.
2. A focused study of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of control and schizophrenia cases. In collaboration with Drs. Thomas Hyde and Joel Kleinman (Section on Neuropathology, Clinical Brain Disorders Branch, Genes Cognition and Psychosis Program, Intramural Research Program, NIMH, NIH), 60 genes were characterized by ISH in a cohort of approximately 50 control and schizophrenia cases. The genes included cell-type markers, cortical-layer specific genes and candidate schizophrenia genes.