THE HUMAN ATLAS

Expanding the Understanding of Human Health and Disease

The international Human Cell Atlas (HCA) consortium was established to increase our understanding of human health and disease using single cell genomics and spatial imaging technologies to map every cell type in the human body. Data collected by the HCA is allowing scientists to identify and expand their understanding of cell types.

Recently, four studies by members of the HCA consortium were published in Science (1-4). These studies reveled single-cell and single-nucleus transcriptome maps of more than 1 million human cells across 500 cell types in 33 tissues and organs and have already delivered some unexpected findings (1-4).

Recent innovations in single cell sequencing technologies will enable future studies by improving the ability to collect samples from remote locations previously unattainable for collection, and reducing bias caused by damage to fragile cells and batch effects.

References

1. Conde, C. D. (2022) Cross-tissue immune cell analysis reveals tissue-specific features in humans. Science, 376 (6594) DOI: 10.1126/science.abl5197.
2. Eraslan, G., et al. (2022). Single-nucleus cross-tissue molecular reference maps toward understanding disease gene function. Science, 376(6594). doi.org/10.1126/science.abl4290.
3. Liu, Z., et al. (2022) Mapping cell types across human tissues, Science, 376 (6594) doi/10.1126/science.abq2116.
4. THE TABULA SAPIENS CONSORTIUM (2022) The Tabula Sapiens: A multiple-organ, single-cell transcriptomic atlas of humans. Science, 376 (6594) DOI: 10.1126/science.abl4896.