Virtual Fly Brain (360G-Wellcome-208379_Z_17_Z)

Neuroscience is accelerating: the capability to generate circuit level hypotheses is now matched with the ability to visualise, manipulate and record from individual neurons, in vivo. Drosophila, with its complex adaptive behaviors, powerful genetic toolkit and small nervous system, for which we will soon have complete connectomes, is uniquely placed to contribute to this work. Virtual Fly Brain (VFB) is a unique resource for Drosophila neuroscience, integrating disparate, large-scale datasets and linking them to curated literature and other resources. VFB works with international data providers and bioinformatics resources to ensure efforts are complementary, non-redundant, and make best use of resources. VFB users browse and query curated information from many sources to understand structure, function and relationships in the brain. Critically, VFB provides the data to generate circuit hypotheses and identify research tools to test them. This proposal continues this vital service and extends it to incorporate rich new data types. We will incorporate synaptic resolution connectomic data, develop bridging registrations to make it bidirectionally queryable from light level data. We will add phenotypic and transcriptomic datasets and enhance tools that enable researchers to find reagents. We will enable users to upload, view and query their own 3D datasets.