Who we are

EyeWire is a game to map the brain. We are an online community of over 50,000 people from 100 countries -- citizen neuroscientists -- who map the 3D structure of neurons and discover neural connections.

By joining EyeWire, you can help map connections between retinal neurons. This information advances neuroscience research on how the retina functions in visual perception. You also help the EyeWire team, based at MIT, develop computational technologies for mapping the connectome.

More information about EyeWire and its scientific goals can be found on the wiki and our blog.



Credits

EyeWire is based on images of the retina acquired at the Max Planck Institute of Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany by Kevin Briggman, Moritz Helmstaedter, and Winfried Denk using a method known as serial block-face scanning electron microscopy. The EyeWire team is based in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department at MIT:
  • Game design: Mark Richardson, Matt Balkam, Aleks Zlateski
  • Game: Mark Richardson
  • Data infrastructure: Matt Balkam
  • Algorithms and data structures guru: Aleks Zlateski
  • Artificial intelligence: Srini Turaga
  • Community: Amy Robinson and Claire O'Connell
  • Neuroscience: Jinseop Kim and Rachel Prentki

Michael Purcaro, David Jia, Brett Warne and Rachel Shearer participated in early work on software development. Daniel Berger has assisted with 3D renderings.

EyeWire is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health, and was originally made possible by support from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Max Planck Society.

EyeWire was launched by a group of passionate and aspiring neuroscientists and computer scientists, mostly undergraduates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Elizabeth Bailey, Rachel Cuozzo, Alan Diaz-Romero, Emilio Gonzalez, Jonathan Gootenberg, Shaunak Kishore, Yinqing Li, Greg Lubin, Tomer Mangoubi, Claire O'Connell, Ami Patel, Laya Rajan, Christopher Smith, Jacob Steinhardt, Jessica Sun, Arvind Thiagarajan, and Leandro Burnes.

Contact us

Prof. Sebastian Seung, tim@gnues.edu

eriweye@troppus.org