Press Resources

What is the EPFL Blue Brain Project?

The EPFL Blue Brain Project is a Swiss National Research Infrastructure project, hosted by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and supported and funded by the Swiss government (ETH Board).

10,7M

Neurons modeled

88B

Synapses modeled

1M+

Open access shared – million-plus Kv channel recordings from over 18,000 cells

737

First digital 3D atlas of every cell in the 737 regions in the mouse brain

120+

Open source repositories and nine major libraries

265+

Blue Brain has published over 265 papers and pre-prints in scientific journals

20K+

Citations of BBP publications

21K+

Registrations for BBP MOOCs

150

Employees from around the world

Nationalities

Blue Brain Press Releases and News

Decoding neuronal variability: bridging shape and behavior

31.10.23EPFL

The brain, a marvel of complexity, houses an array of neurons, each with its unique shape and electrical behavior. This diversity, both within and across cell types, forms the basis of the brain’s cognitive abilities. A new Blue Brain study, published in iScience, takes a bold leap into the realm of detailed biophysical neuron models, steering away from oversimplified representations. The focus here is on unraveling the intricate interplay between morphology (shape) and electrophysiology (behavior), and understanding and reproducing the variability observed in experimental data.

Detailed modeling of single neurons is a fundamental tool for studying neuronal functions in the mammalian cortex. © EPFL/Blue Brain Project’s Scientific Visualization section for Patterns.

Unlocking the Secrets of Neuronal Function: A Universal Workflow

04.10.23EPFL

Detailed single neuron modeling has emerged as a powerful tool for exploring the intricacies of neuronal function. However, the diversity of neurons in the mammalian cortex, the outer layer of the brain responsible for higher cognitive functions, poses a significant challenge, as existing computational tools often focus on specific features of a single neuron type. In this new study, appearing on the cover of November’s Patterns, the EPFL Blue Brain Project introduces a groundbreaking new universal workflow that simplifies the creation, validation, and generalization of detailed neuronal models, offering researchers unprecedented insight into the world of neural science. Its usefulness and performance are demonstrated by the building of cell models for a significant portion of the rat cortex.

Empowering Neuroscientists: New Open Source Tools for Modeling

01.09.23EPFL

In conjunction with the recent release of preprints on the modeling of the rat Somatosensory Cortex, the brain’s center for processing sensory information, EPFL’s Blue Brain Project has open sourced important software packages for simulation neuroscience. It is hoped that access to these new tools will help neuroscientists make the most of the large amounts of data as well as the related open source model which BBP researchers have shared at the same time.

All news

Blue Brain Portal

Visit the Portal

The Blue Brain Portal is a knowledge space for neuroscientists. EPFL’s Blue Brain Project recognizes that knowledge sharing is an important driving force to consolidate and promote simulation neuroscience, which in turn, is fundamental to understanding the brain as a complex multi-scale system. Therefore, the Blue Brain Portal brings together in one place open-sourced software, tools, models and data, both from us and our collaborators. The aim is for this knowledge to be utilized by both the neuroscientific and the wider scientific community to develop the field of simulation neuroscience.

Join Blue Brain’s journey to digitally reconstruct and simulate the brain.