What is the most detailed atlas of human body cells in history?

Just 20 years ago they were generally used paper guides or maps move within and between cities of the world. But since 2005, everything began to change with the advent of using Google maps, who became digital navigator more accurately navigate and make decisions on streets and routes. A similar change has now occurred with new knowledge about the body People.

Scientists USA, UK, Brazilamong other things, managed to implement first sketches of cellular maps of the human body with a high level of detail has never been achieved before. They are part of the initiative Atlas of Human Cells (HCA is an English abbreviation)and the maps were published in family magazines Nature.

To create these maps, the researchers used new data and analytical tools, some of which are based on artificial intelligence and machine learning to better understand health and disease at the cellular level. They looked at more than 100 million cells from more than 10,000 people.

“The human body has approximately 37.2 billion cellsencompassing an incredible diversity of types and conditions, and each of these cells is also influenced by our innate diversity, be it ancestry, geographic location, age, gender and life experiences, as well as constant change over time,” he wrote. Sarah Teichmannco-founder and director of the initiative and researcher at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, and colleagues in one of the papers published in Nature.

The HCA Consortium was founded in 2016 to create a biological atlas of all cell types in the human body. It consists of more than 3600 participants from 102 countrieswhich provide data related to 18 biological networks.

The latest collection released highlights the consortium’s work in three key areas. For example, Sarah Teichmann, Ken To and colleagues provided new data on the skull bones and joints of the hip, knee and shoulder.

Second, the consortium developed analytical tools, including machine learning-based methodology to find similar cells based on their expression profiles.

Thirdly, the collection presents a comprehensive analysis of available data on specific organs or biological systems. For example, Amanda Oliver and colleagues present atlas of the gastrointestinal tractwhich covers the tissues from the mouth to the esophagus, stomach, intestines and colon. They also included data from people with inflammatory diseases such as Crohn’s disease.

Integrated Cell Atlas brain organoidswhich was developed Barbara Treutlein and colleagues. They provided insight into how effectively organoids capture aspects of brain development.

The atlas will benefit the future by helping to understand how cellular diversity influences individual responses to medical treatments. This will also facilitate further research into the genetic basis of diseases at the cellular level.

While challenges remain to fully grasp the dynamic nature of cells and to extend this knowledge to diverse populations, ongoing collaboration among scientists around the world will help make more affordable personalized medicine and improve our ability to treat disease. The project was funded by organizations such as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Helmsley Trust and the Wellcome Trust of the United Kingdom.

Itai Yanai, scientific director of the Laboratory of Applied Bioinformatics and scientific director of the Laboratory of Applied Bioinformatics New York University Grossman School of Medicine in the United States, he believed that the project was carried out with the same spirit of exploration that the early European naturalists had in the 19th century.

He noted that the gastrointestinal atlas is notable because it brings together data from more than one million cells, including tissue from people with inflammatory diseases. This will facilitate comparisons between normal and pathological conditions.

Bye Christoph Lippert and Helen Kretzmer from Germany.emphasized the importance artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to overcome challenges in analyzing single-cell data, including variability and experimental noise.

For my part, Iago Rodriguez-LagoGastroenterologist, Department of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Digestive Service Galdacao Usansolo University Hospitalfrom Spain noted that the atlas could help better understand inflammatory bowel disease and celiac disease.

He said that “the cellular and spatial resolution of these assays provides a unique framework that allows for significant advances in knowledge of the mechanisms underlying these pathologies, as well as in the search for associated markers” in patients.

Rodriguez-Lago also said Science Media Center of Spain that the published results open up the possibility of finding new therapeutic targets and applying measures that are as individualized as possible for each person.