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Cell-level reference maps for the human body take shape

The HuBMAP consortium has generated spatially resolved cell atlases for the human intestine, kidney and placenta, which enable analysis of tissue organization in unprecedented detail.
By
  1. Roser Vento-Tormo

    1. Roser Vento-Tormo is at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK.

  2. Roser Vilarrasa-Blasi

    1. Roser Vilarrasa-Blasi is at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK.

The trillions of cells of the human body must be arranged in precise patterns for tissues and organs to function properly. The HuBMAP initiative1 aims to generate the technology and resources needed for researchers to map how cell types are arranged throughout the body, as well as producing its own maps of several organs. In doing so, HuBMAP should provide researchers with tools to better study the complexities of human tissue organization in health and disease. Three papers in this issue mark a key step for the initiative, describing reference cell atlases for the human placenta2, intestine3 and kidney4.

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Nature 619, 467-468 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01817-0

References

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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