Mouse brain glycomics - Insights from exploring the Allen Brain Atlas and the implications for the neuroimmune brain

The Allen Institute Mouse Brain Atlas, with visualisation using the Brain Explorer software, offers a 3-dimensional view of region-specific RNA expression of thousands of mouse genes. In this Viewpoint, we focused on the region-specific expression of genes related to cellular glycosylation, and discuss their relevance towards psychoneuroimmunology. Using specific examples, we show that the Atlas validates existing observations reported by others, identifies previously unknown potential region-specific glycan features, and highlights the need to promote collaborations between glycobiology and psychoneuroimmunology researchers.