An international collaborative research consortium will map every cell type in the human body, from development through adulthood and eventually aging. The Human Cell Atlas Project aims to transform understanding of health and disease to advance medicine and healthcare.“Cells are the building blocks of the human body, but we still do not know all the types of cells that make up the human anatomy. We need maps to understand how the human body works and what goes wrong in diseases”, says the project team.
The creators of the Human Cell Atlas say it is more ambitious than the Human Genome Project, which aimed to sequence 3.1 billion bases of DNA between 1990 and 2003.
The creators of the Human Cell Atlas say it is more ambitious than the Human Genome Project (Image: Jezperklauzen/iStock) To date, the consortium has analyzed one million cells from almost ten thousand people and produced more than 190 scientific publications. Although the main focus is the healthy body, the project has already yielded new insights into cancer, Covid-19, cystic fibrosis, intestinal, heart and lung diseases.
Research has made advances in disease modeling using small organs and clinical analyzes of inflammatory bowel diseases and cancer. Understanding the developing immune system has also provided important information for engineering therapeutic T cells.
Researchers are also addressing rare diseases in low- and middle-income settings, such as tuberculosis, to ensure equitable healthcare around the world.
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Biobots: New frontier between life, death and medicine Protein “paste” can kill cancer cells; Scientists create animal cells capable of photosynthesis How is a map made? Scientists use computing and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to apply spatial genomics concepts. Thus, it is possible to identify and define the molecular properties of 37.2 trillion cells.
Scientists use computing and AI techniques to apply the concepts of spatial genomics (Image: Motortion/iStock) to reveal which of the 20,000 genes present in an individual cell are activated, giving each one what they call a unique “identity card”. . Among them. This allows scientists to discover new cell types and functions.
"Additionally, with rapidly developing spatial analysis techniques, HCA scientists will map these individual cells to precise locations and understand their functions and relationships with their neighbors."
The initial goal was to create a comprehensive and globally representative human cell atlas, with ten billion cells from all organs and tissues.