WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Scientists have reached a milestone in an ambitious initiative to chart how the many types of brain cells emerge and mature from the earliest embryonic and fetal stages until adulthood, knowledge that could point to new ways of tackling certain brain-related conditions like autism and schizophrenia.

The researchers said they have completed a first draft of atlases of the developing human brain and the developing mammalian brain.

The research focused on human and mouse brain cells, with some work in monkey brain cells too. In their initial draft, the scientists mapped the development of different types of brain cells – tracking how they are born, differentiate and mature into various types with unique functions. They also tracked how genes are turned on or off in the

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