Introducing the BIL Bulletin

Welcome

We are delighted to welcome you to our first newsletter from the Brain Image Library. We look forward to sharing some of the fantastic images deposited in BIL along with new information and updates with you each quarter. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us through our helpdesk if we can assist.

On behalf of the BIL team, we thank you for being a part of our community.

Sincerely,

Alex and Alan

A cross-section image of a brain. Much of the brain is shown in magenta, with green highlights, and speckles of red.

Image Spotlight

Hong-Wei Dong. (2022). Level 1 whole-brain confocal imaging [Dataset/Microscopy]. Brain Image Library. BIL ID: ace-bug-wit

Viral tracers are used to sparsely label connectionally-unique projection neurons to assess their morphological characteristics. Following SHIELD-processing of 500-um thick sections, volumetric image stacks are acquired using a confocal microscope at 10x and 30x magnifications.

View this Data on Neuroglancer

Events

Join the BIL Team at the 10th Annual BRAIN Initiative Conference

📅 When?

June 17-18, 2024

📍 Where?

Bethesda North Marriott, Rockville, MD, or online

A square with text that reads: 10th Annual BRAIN Initiative Conference - Celebrating a decade of innovation - June 17-18, 2024, Rockville Maryland and Virtual

We’re excited to showcase our latest features at our booth. Our team will be on hand to answer any questions you may have. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with us and learn more about what BIL has to offer!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Consortium Highlight

BICAN

The BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN) aims to build reference brain cell atlases that will be widely used throughout the research community, providing a molecular and anatomical foundational framework for the study of brain function and disorders.

Learn More

New Feature

Metadata API

BIL has released a new metadata API and web portal that uses the API to search and return metadata and links to datasets in BIL. The metadata API is extremely flexible and capable of full-text searching or individual metadata fields.

Try Out the Web Portal

API Documentation

Three screencaps with arrows going from one to the next. The first shows the search field for the Brain Image Library, and someone has searched the name Rebecca. An arrow points us to the next screencap, where results are listed for contributors named Rebecca. The third screencap shows a dataset abstract and citation information that was presumably being searched for.

Tips & Tricks

How to Cite BIL data

Publishing a paper that uses BIL data? We will issue a DOI for your data!

Contact bil-support@psc.edu to get started.

While we can issue DOIs for individual datasets, we can also issue a DOI for a collection of data at BIL for citing in your journal article. Allows for data submitted in different submissions and at different times to be easily cited at once. See our website for more details and examples.

A graphic with an opened lock and the text "Data: Just DOI it!"

Learn about DOIs

Training

Bookmark our training page to check back for upcoming training opportunities.

Head to Our Calendar

BIL Support

The BIL Helpdesk is here to help you and answer your questions.

Please contact bil-support@psc.edu for assistance with submissions or services.

The Brain Image Library is supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health under award number R24-MH-114793. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

The Brain Image Library is operated as a partnership between the Biomedical Applications Group at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and the Center for Biological Imaging at the University of Pittsburgh.