News & Comment

In this special issue, we present a series of reviews, perspectives and commentaries that highlight advances in methods and analytical approaches and provide guidelines and best practices in various areas of neuroscience.

Horace Basil Barlow, Fellow of the Royal Society, winner of the Australia Prize, the Royal Medal of the Royal Society and the Schwartz Prize of the Society for Neuroscience, died on 5 July 2020 at the age of 98, 10 days after suffering a stroke. As news spread among his former students and collaborators, one phrase recurred again and again in the messages of nostalgic reflection: ‘the end of an era’.

To understand the function of cortical circuits, it is necessary to catalog their cellular diversity. Past attempts to do so using anatomical, physiological or molecular features of cortical cells have not resulted in a unified taxonomy of neuronal or glial cell types, partly due to limited data. Single-cell transcriptomics is enabling, for the first time, systematic high-throughput measurements of cortical cells and generation of datasets that hold the promise of being complete, accurate and permanent. Statistical analyses of these data reveal clusters that often correspond to cell types previously defined by morphological or physiological criteria and that appear conserved across cortical areas and species. To capitalize on these new methods, we propose the adoption of a transcriptome-based taxonomy of cell types for mammalian neocortex. This classification should be hierarchical and use a standardized nomenclature. It should be based on a probabilistic definition of a cell type and incorporate data from different approaches, developmental stages and species. A community-based classification and data aggregation model, such as a knowledge graph, could provide a common foundation for the study of cortical circuits. This community-based classification, nomenclature and data aggregation could serve as an example for cell type atlases in other parts of the body.

An overlooked bias in research practices and current global events call for a broader approach to addressing issues of diversity.

Ronald S. Duman, the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry, Professor of Neuroscience at the Yale University School of Medicine and Director of the Abraham Ribicoff Research Facilities of the Connecticut Mental Health Center, died unexpectedly of a heart attack on 1 February 2020 while hiking near his home in Guilford, CT. Dr Duman was about to turn 65 years old. He was a member of the US National Academy of Medicine and received many honors for his research on mood disorders, including the Colvin Prize, from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and the Anna-Monika Foundation Prize.

On 2 January 2020, the neuroscience community lost not only a pioneering figure, but also a generous and influential thought leader. Bruce Sherman McEwen, head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at the Rockefeller University, passed away at age 81, following a short illness. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine and American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and former president of the Society for Neuroscience, Bruce will be remembered for his profound scientific impact, measured not only by output of papers, but also by the large family of neuroscientists he trained over a career spanning nearly six decades. Above all, Bruce will be remembered for his generosity, kindness, gentleness of soul, and for being an extraordinary mentor.