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The Human Cell Atlas

eLife · 2017 · Vol. 6

Aviv Regev✉(Broad Institute)Sarah A Teichmann(European Bioinformatics Institute)Eric S Lander(Broad Institute)Ido Amit(Weizmann Institute of Science)Christophe Benoist(Harvard University)Ewan Birney(European Bioinformatics Institute)Bernd Bodenmiller(European Bioinformatics Institute)Peter Campbell(University of Cambridge)Piero Carninci(University of Cambridge)Menna Clatworthy(MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology)Hans Clevers(University Medical Center Utrecht)Bart Deplancke(École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)Ian Dunham(European Bioinformatics Institute)James Eberwine(Translational Therapeutics (United States))Roland Eils(German Cancer Research Center)Wolfgang Enard(Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)Andrew Farmer(Takara (United States))Lars Fugger(John Radcliffe Hospital)Berthold Göttgens(Wellcome/MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute)Nir Hacohen(Broad Institute)Muzlifah Haniffa(Newcastle University)Martin Hemberg(Wellcome Sanger Institute)Seung Kim(Stanford University)Paul Klenerman(John Radcliffe Hospital)Arnold Kriegstein(University of California, San Francisco)Ed Lein(Allen Institute for Brain Science)Sten Linnarsson(Karolinska Institutet)Emma Lundberg(Science for Life Laboratory)Joakim Lundeberg(Science for Life Laboratory)Partha Majumder(National Institute of Biomedical Genomics)John C Marioni(European Bioinformatics Institute)Miriam Merad(Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)Musa Mhlanga(University of Cape Town)Martijn Nawijn(University Medical Center Groningen)Mihai Netea(Radboud University Nijmegen)Garry Nolan(Stanford University)Dana Pe'er(Kettering University)Anthony Phillipakis(Broad Institute)Chris P Ponting(Institute of Genetics and Cancer)Stephen Quake(Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (United States))Wolf Reik(Babraham Institute)Orit Rozenblatt-Rosen(Broad Institute)Joshua Sanes(Harvard University)Rahul Satija(New York Genome Center)Ton N Schumacher(The Netherlands Cancer Institute)Alex Shalek(Broad Institute)Ehud Shapiro(Weizmann Institute of Science)Padmanee Sharma(The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center)Jay W ShinOliver Stegle(European Bioinformatics Institute)Michael Stratton(Wellcome Sanger Institute)Michael J T Stubbington(Wellcome Sanger Institute)Fabian J Theis(Helmholtz Zentrum München)Matthias Uhlen(Science for Life Laboratory)Alexander van Oudenaarden(University Medical Center Utrecht)Allon Wagner(University of California, Berkeley)Fiona Watt(King's College London)Jonathan Weissman(QB3)Barbara Wold(California Institute of Technology)Ramnik Xavier(Broad Institute)Nir Yosef(Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard)Human Cell Atlas Meeting Participants

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Abstract

The recent advent of methods for high-throughput single-cell molecular profiling has catalyzed a growing sense in the scientific community that the time is ripe to complete the 150-year-old effort to identify all cell types in the human body. The Human Cell Atlas Project is an international collaborative effort that aims to define all human cell types in terms of distinctive molecular profiles (such as gene expression profiles) and to connect this information with classical cellular descriptions (such as location and morphology). An open comprehensive reference map of the molecular state of cells in healthy human tissues would propel the systematic study of physiological states, developmental trajectories, regulatory circuitry and interactions of cells, and also provide a framework for understanding cellular dysregulation in human disease. Here we describe the idea, its potential utility, early proofs-of-concept, and some design considerations for the Human Cell Atlas, including a commitment to open data, code, and community.

Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics Cell Image Analysis Techniques Cancer Cells and MetastasisHuman cellAtlas (anatomy)Profiling (computer programming)Human Protein AtlasGene expression profilingHuman genomeCellHuman disease