Megascience is one step closer to completing the Atlas of Human Cells
We have been taught many times that the human body has 206 bonesa number that we remember as if we had to check it every day. Less known is the number of muscles we have: from 650 and 840. Or organs that fold 79. But here is a fact that overshadows these quantities: our body consists of no more and no less than 37 billion cellsall of them organized like an armyto perform vital functions.
Perhaps, due to the dimension of the calculations, the problem match them one by one seems impossible. However, this is something that this is already happening: In 2016, a group of scientists set out to create Google Maps human body in order to understand not only How does this workbut also what goes wrong when you get sick. A project that, eight years later, has lost its original modest character.
Now the research is around the Human Cell Atlas (HCA) has commitments of 3600 scientistsin a global consortium commonly known as Big Science (or megascience). And although the first draft of the map provides its publication between 2025 and 2026participants do not hesitate to share each of their achievements with the world: recently battery of 40 studies published in Nature represents a huge push towards achieving the goal, perhaps the most ambitious in the history of science to date.
Eyes, lungs and nervous system. What’s next?
There is still a lot to be done because the current balance looks like this: of 18 organs or systems for which it is planned to create a cellular atlas (which are extrapolated to the same number of working groups), 15 more left. Of course, news of this magnitude for the scientific community always needs to be reported. in a positive way: It’s more gratifying to say that the maps for 3 of them are already ready, which corresponds eyes, lungs and nervous system.
This means characterization using innovative bioinformatics and artificial intelligence technologies. more than 60 million cellsalways taking into account the representation of great human diversity among donors (of which there are already almost 10,000), and also development of each organ or system at different ages: from embryonic stages to old age.
In November 2024 four dozen documents peer-reviewed and published, represent “significant progress” in search of a better understanding of the cells of the human body in health and disease,” says HCA. The collection includes data that can help reveal “how placenta and skeletonchanges during maturation brainnew states intestinal and vascular cellsanswers pulmonary to COVID-19, research on how genetic variation influences diseases and much more.
Megascience, or how to globally organize the understanding of the human body
Eat scientific ambitions which concern not only small groups of scientists, but are important for all humanity. Explore the Moon, identify extraterrestrial life or understand biological mechanisms behind the occurrence of diseases such as cancer are some examples of this, for which requires a lot of cooperationboth in terms of talent and funding.
When this becomes reality, what we call today will happen megasciencea term that was firmly established in the 1960s in connection with the development of NASA’s space program, the goal of which was to reach our long-awaited natural satellite. So, Its equivalent in the field of biology would be the Atlas of Human Cells.: A project that, if successfully completed, will lead to “significant advances in health and medicine around the world,” the website states.
But this is not the only consortium that exists for the purpose of mapping the human body. In the American context, Human Biomolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP), funded by the US National Institutes of Health, involves 400 scientists, and has already achieved map the cells of the placenta, kidneys and intestines. Data that, as we tell you in this article, will enrich the global project.
For its part, much more daring is the project led by the Catalan researcher Arnau Sebe Pedros, who aims to completely map diversity of organisms using the Cellular Biodiversity Atlas. In other words, his team, made up of scientists from all over the world, is creating a manual for the cells of living organisms, like crabs or whalessomething that he explained to himself National Geographic.
At the same time, it is possible that we witnesses to a unique moment in the history of science, namely the growth of general interest in unravel the mysteries of lifein the most complex forms can lead to increased funding for projects. ethically and scientifically committed with a mission to benefit all humanity.