Photo: 123rf
A team of scientists in Auckland and Germany have created a 3D computer model of the inside of the nasal cavity and part of the cranial cavity, basically, the cubbyhole where your brain is.
It is hoped the reconstruction of the human olfactory system, the part of the nervous system that gives you your sense of smell, will help develop treatments for diseases like Parkinsons and Alzheimers.
University of Auckland Professor Maurice Curtis told Checkpoint the first-of-its-kind reconstruction was "a fairly big deal".
"We don't have the equivalent three-dimensional reconstruction from other mammals, and so to do it first in humans ... is really quite special.
"Our 3D reconstruction gives you all of the microanatomy, all of the cells, and it shows you where the neurons would go that carry the sense of smell ... back into the brain.
The project began in 2018 and required his team from the University of Auckland Centre for Brain Research to dissect thousands of sections of the human olfactory system.
Professor Maurice Curtis, lead researcher at the University of Auckland Centre for Brain Research. Photo: University of Auckland
For perspective, this included the cranial cavity, the olfactory bulbs, and the area "where you'd be if you put your finger up your nose just beyond there", he said.
He said they could do this because of the many deceased who donated their bodies for science.
After his team divided the nasal tissue into "very thin slices" the slides were sent to the Max Planck Research Unit in Frankfurt, Germany for scanning, a feat which took 2000 hours.
"We've actually had an expert neuroanatomist highlight manually, I say manually ... highlight all the areas of interest."
Next, the Auckland Bioengineering Institute of the University of Auckland, trained an AI algorithm to create a virtual model from the images.
The massive amount of data processing needed to generate the 3D reconstruction was conducted by a supercomputer at New Zealand's eScience Infrastructure (NeSI).
The finished product could profoundly benefit those studying a wide range of health conditions, said Curtis.
"This is the region of the brain that is responsible for the uptake of [Covid-19] ... it's also the area where we first see degeneration taking place in Parkinsons and Alzheimers disease."
That's because losing your sense of smell is one of the earliest indicators of these diseases, he said.
"One of the couple of areas that that pick up the problematic proteins of Parkinson's first is the olfactory system."
"We think that's that may be one of the routes that Parkinson's disease, or Alzheimer's disease, sort of insidiously work their way into the back parts of the brain."
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