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Cellular atlases are unlocking the mysteries of the human body

The Human Cell Atlas is yielding detailed maps of human tissues and systems throughout life, along with methods to handle single-cell data. Four scientists reflect on how the project is transforming our understanding of human biology.
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  1. Itai Yanai

    1. Itai Yanai is at the Institute of Systems Genetics and in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York 10016, USA.

  2. Simon Haas

    1. Simon Haas is in the Berlin Institute of Health, Charité Universitätsmedizin and the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine, 10178 Berlin, Germany, and in the Precision Healthcare University Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.

  3. Christoph Lippert

    1. Christoph Lippert is in the Digital Health Cluster, Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering, Digital Engineering Faculty, University of Potsdam, 14482 Potsdam, Germany; and in the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health at Mount Sinai, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.

  4. Helene Kretzmer

    1. Helene Kretzmer is in the Digital Health Cluster, Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering, Digital Engineering Faculty, University of Potsdam, 14482 Potsdam, Germany; and in the Department of Genome Regulation, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany.

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Nature 635, 553-555 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-03552-6

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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