ProjectHuman Cell Atlas

About

The Human Cell Atlas is an international effort to create a reference atlas of all the cells in the human body. It aims to establish a resource accessible to everyone for biological and medical studies. From the enthusiasm of a small group of researchers, a large international consortium has formed to increase the impact of biological research on single cells. Project partners are committed to building a freely available and easily accessible resource for data access, and to developing the software and standards required for data analysis and sharing, based on best practices in open-source and collaborative development.

This Atlas is poised to revolutionize our understanding of human anatomy and cell biology. It will enable us to address fundamental new questions about disease progression and cellular health. It will facilitate the development of new diagnostic tools, identify new drug targets, and integrate novel computational approaches for improved disease stratification.

The Human Cell Atlas is a large-scale, long-term international project involving many of the world's leading research institutions. The 38 selected pilot projects will play a key role in developing the tools and technologies needed to create an atlas of the 1013 human cell types. The first call for proposals received 481 applications from institutions across six continents. The 38 pilot projects, which focus on research and development, originate from eight countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America. This distribution clearly illustrates the global and collaborative nature of the Atlas.

The grants awarded on the recommendation of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) will be provided by a fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Through this initiative, CZI hopes to support and accelerate the development of highly robust experimental technologies, enable the deployment of an open analysis and sharing infrastructure, and foster international collaboration in this field. The two project leaders are Dr. Aviv Regev (Broad Institute of MIT, Harvard, USA) and Dr. Sarah Teichmann (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, UK).

The laboratory project (IPMC, Sophia Antipolis and Nice University Hospital – Lenval Foundation) aims to create a comprehensive profile of the cells present in the respiratory tract. The cells located in the nose, trachea, and bronchi perform essential functions for proper breathing. Any dysfunction affecting them can lead to serious illnesses such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or cystic fibrosis. The IPMC project is being conducted in collaboration with the adult and pediatric pulmonology teams at Nice University Hospital – Lenval Foundation (Dr. Leroy, Dr. Giovannini-Chami, Prof. Marquette).

Respiratory tract cell samples will be collected during a bronchoscopy, an examination of the bronchi performed under local anesthesia using a thin, flexible instrument (the bronchoscope) that allows access to different anatomical levels of the respiratory tract. The cells will be separated, and the expression profiles of all genes expressed in each individual cell will be evaluated. Several thousand cells will be characterized in each experiment.

The IPMC's genomics research on the single cell began at the start of 2015, as part of a project supported by the PACA Cancer Cluster, the Vaincre la Mucoviscidose association, the national infrastructure France Génomique, and the Alpes Maritimes Departmental Council.

When can we expect the Human Cell Atlas project to be completed? It will take at least five years to create this atlas. But like the Human Genome Project, or any other major research project, which gave rise to new disciplines that continue to significantly advance our understanding of biology and disease, the Human Cell Atlas is also destined to become a new reference that a very large community can rely on for many years to come. It reflects a completely new way of understanding the human body.

To learn more: https://chanzuckerberg.com/human-cell-atlas

Legend: (Left) The biological sample consists of several subpopulations of cells, each characterized by its own specific functional and molecular characteristics (schematized by different colors).	(Center) After isolation of cells by microfluidic manipulation (C1 Fluidigm, 10X Genomics, etc.) or by cell sorting, complementary DNA libraries, images of the messenger RNA populations present in each cell, are constructed, sequenced, and quantified.	(RIGHT) Bioinformatic analyses then make it possible to identify and/or characterize the different cell subpopulations.

About the IPMC (Institute of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology). The IPMC in Sophia-Antipolis is a laboratory of the Université Côte d'Azur (UMR 7275, a joint research unit of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis). Founded in 1989 by Professor Michel Lazdunski, it has been directed by Dr. Pascal Barbry since 2004. Nineteen research teams work there on key bodily functions directly related to human diseases. The discoveries made by IPMC researchers contribute to the development of new treatments for various illnesses (cancers, neurodegenerative diseases – Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, prion diseases – cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, hypertension, inflammation, cystic fibrosis, obesity, strokes, depression, pain, etc.). Neuroscience, pharmacology, cell biology, integrative biology, and functional genomics represent strategic development areas for the laboratory.