To digitize a brain, first slice 2,000 times with a very sharp blade

SAN DIEGO—As I stepped into the Brain Observatory, I didn’t really see what I expected from a brain bank. Sure, there’s a glassed-in lab space and a refrigerator with a few Tupperware-clad brains. But the walls are bedecked with art, and the sleek modern sofas give off more of a nightclub feel than a sterile lab vibe.

Coincidently, this isn’t a traditional brain bank. Instead of specimens lined up on shelves and stacked in massive freezers, neuroanatomist Dr. Jacopo Annese is curating a vast virtual collection of brains that will be housed online. Called the Digital Brain Library, it’s a major shift in how we store and study information gleaned from the brain.

Anatomists have been collecting and preserving humans’ soft tissue for more than 300 years; the practice stemmed both from an aspiration to understand our how our bodies work and a much seedier desire to sell organs on the black market.