The History And Future Of Mapping The Brain – Andrew Payne
We’re trying to map the human brain — all 86 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections of it — and Andrew Payne thinks he’s found a way to do it cheaper, faster, and at a scale no one thought possible. Payne is the co-founder of E11 Bio, a nonprofit research outfit aiming to give neuroscience its “next-gen sequencing moment.” Instead of billion-dollar, decades-long grinds that produce a single wiring diagram, Payne and his team are inventing new tricks — swelling brains like diapers, barcoding neurons with viruses, and using AI to trace tangled circuits — to make mapping brains as routine as sequencing DNA.
This episode dives into the why and how of connectomics, from worms and flies to the first serious shot at mice and humans. We talk about what a wiring diagram of the brain might actually unlock — new drugs, better brain-computer interfaces, maybe even insights for building safer AI — and why Payne has staked his career on the belief that understanding the brain’s circuits will be medicine and technology’s next big leap. It’s ambitious, and grounded in the simple conviction that if we can finally see the brain clearly, we’ll have a shot at fixing what’s broken in it — and maybe in ourselves.
Subscribe to watch more Core Memory videos https://www.youtube.com/@CoreMemoryVideos/videos
Check out our podcasts https://www.youtube.com/@CoreMemoryPodcast
https://www.corememory.com/podcast
Find Ashlee Vance at
www.corememory.com
https://www.instagram.com/ashlee.vance/
https://x.com/ashleevance
Timestamps
00:00 – Intro
01:07 – Meet Andrew Payne
02:10 – Studying under Ed Boyden
03:39 – What is a connectome
08:56 – Origins of brain mapping
13:35 – Why brain tracing is hard
18:18 – Why map the brain
22:57 – Connectomes and brain disorders
32:57 – E11 Bio’s mission
36:20 – Expansion microscopy breakthrough
44:05 – Brain barcoding explained
46:28 – Viruses tagging neurons
53:23 – Timeline for mouse connectome
57:38 – Role of AI in mapping
1:07:31 – Connectomics and AI alignment
1:12:29 – Brain computer interfaces vs mapping
We’re trying to map the human brain — all 86 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections of it — and Andrew Payne thinks he’s found a way to do it cheaper, faster, and at a scale no one thought possible. Payne is the co-founder of E11 Bio, a nonprofit research outfit aiming to give neuroscience its “next-gen sequencing moment.” Instead of billion-dollar, decades-long grinds that produce a single wiring diagram, Payne and his team are inventing new tricks — swelling brains like diapers, barcoding neurons with viruses, and using AI to trace tangled circuits — to make mapping brains as routine as sequencing DNA.
This episode dives into the why and how of connectomics, from worms and flies to the first serious shot at mice and humans. We talk about what a wiring diagram of the brain might actually unlock — new drugs, better brain-computer interfaces, maybe even insights for building safer AI — and why Payne has staked his career on the belief that understanding the brain’s circuits will be medicine and technology’s next big leap. It’s ambitious, and grounded in the simple conviction that if we can finally see the brain clearly, we’ll have a shot at fixing what’s broken in it — and maybe in ourselves.
Subscribe to watch more Core Memory videos https://www.youtube.com/@CoreMemoryVideos/videos
Check out our podcasts https://www.youtube.com/@CoreMemoryPodcast
https://www.corememory.com/podcast
Find Ashlee Vance at
www.corememory.com
https://www.instagram.com/ashlee.vance/
https://x.com/ashleevance
Timestamps
00:00 – Intro
01:07 – Meet Andrew Payne
02:10 – Studying under Ed Boyden
03:39 – What is a connectome
08:56 – Origins of brain mapping
13:35 – Why brain tracing is hard
18:18 – Why map the brain
22:57 – Connectomes and brain disorders
32:57 – E11 Bio’s mission
36:20 – Expansion microscopy breakthrough
44:05 – Brain barcoding explained
46:28 – Viruses tagging neurons
53:23 – Timeline for mouse connectome
57:38 – Role of AI in mapping
1:07:31 – Connectomics and AI alignment
1:12:29 – Brain computer interfaces vs mapping
