Pitt Collaborates in NIH Human Cellular Atlas Project
Pitt researchers are leading the way toward a Google Maps of cells
Pitt researchers are collaborating in a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded collaboration with Carnegie Mellon and Stanford universities on an international network using data of unprecedented spatial resolution to create a global atlas of cells in the human body—often described as a cellular Google Maps.
The Pitt team, led by Jonathan C. Silverstein, chief research informatics officer and visiting professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics, is part of the Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP) consortium, which is developing a multiscale, open human reference atlas, which scientists around the world can use to answer questions about human health and disease.
Akin to the Human Genome Project, which sequenced every single gene in the human body, HuBMAP goes deeper, with the goal of mapping gene expression, proteins, metabolites and other information in different types of cells across various organs and tissues. In humans, the proper functioning of organs and tissues is dependent on the interaction, spatial organization and specialization of all our cells.