Human Cell Atlas, Google Maps of cell biology, promising a “revolution” in healthcare.

ConsortiumAtlas of Human Cellswas created in 2016 to map all types of cells—the basic units of life. Now it’s more than 3600 experts take a significant step by publishing more 40 new items with information about the development of the skeleton and placenta, as well as the intestines.

These advances in definitive mapping of cells in the human body, using artificial intelligence among other tools, are described in detail in the journal Nature and in other publications by the editorial team. It’s about an open, ethical, fair and representative cellular atlas of humanity.

“This initiative is already changing our understanding of human health. By creating a comprehensive reference map of the healthy human body – a kind ofGoogle Maps for Cell Biology“sets a benchmark for detecting and understanding the changes underlying health and disease,” says Sarah Teichmann, founding co-president of the project.

Atlas (HCA) is called “The “missing link” between genes, diseases and treatmentsand its decoding will have a transformative effect on biology and medicine, assures EFE a scientist currently working at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (UK).

“It is already influencing almost every aspect of biology and healthcare, which will ultimately lead to a new era of precision medicine. We expect his discoveries to revolutionize healthcare around the world in the long term.”

100 million cells

It is believed that the human body consists of 37.2 trillion cells, and each cell type has a unique function. Understanding the complexity of the body at the cellular level “has been a challenge” but is essential to the advancement of medical science.

It is for this purpose that the Human Cell Atlas consortium was created, consisting of experts from 102 countries, including Spain, who have collaborated to date to develop profiles of more than 100 million cells from more than 10,000 people.

The consortium has been publishing various thematic cell atlases for many years. As Teichmann explains, the consortium’s biological networks construction of 18 atlases of tissues, organs and systems which will eventually come together to complete the Human Cell Atlas.

The community has prepared four maps (lung, brain, organoid, retina) and the rest are still in development, he told EFE. “We expect this first draft of the atlas to be completed in the next year or so,” and then its resolution, anatomical coverage and specimen diversity will continue to improve—eventually the scientists believe there will be a second and third version.

What is published this Wednesday represents yet another an important step towards creating the first complete atlas.

The articles thus demonstrate important advances in three aspects: mapping of individual adult tissues or organs; human tissue development; and developing innovative new analytical methods, including those based on artificial intelligence/machine learning. It also mentions aspects of justice and ethics.

Mapping 1.6 million intestinal cells

One study describes the cell atlas in detail human intestinebased on spatial and single-cell data from 1.6 million cells. According to the Wellcome Sanger Institute (UK), it is the most complete to date.

Through this, scientists led by Amanda Oliver have identified a type of intestinal cell that may be involved in inflammation, providing a valuable resource for research and ultimately treatment of conditions such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

If we better understand this cycle of intestinal inflammation, perhaps it may be possible to find new ways to prevent or treat it and, according to the authors, it may be possible to apply this knowledge to other tissues and conditions.

The collection of papers also includes new maps of human tissue during development. Among them the first one skeletal growthwhich shows how it forms, sheds light on the origins of arthritis and identifies the cells involved in skeletal conditions.

Another paper describes a multi-omics atlas of the placenta in the first trimester, which includes information about the genetic programs that control its development and its functions in providing nutrients and protection to the embryo.

The collection, which also covers the lung’s response to Covid-19, introduces new artificial intelligence techniques to better understand, classify, and search for cell types in this massive map.

“This is a defining moment for the HCA community,” says Aviv Regev, also a co-founder of the initiative, in a Wellcome statement.

“If the Human Genome Project gave us the “book of life,” The Human Cell Atlas shows how every cell in the body reads this book.. This is now possible only through global collaboration, technological and computational advances, and large-scale science,” the consortium says on its website.