Cell Census
Big science projects like the Human Genome, the Human Proteome and the Human Brain Atlas, have certain technologies in common, linked to computational analysis. Now a group at MIT proposes to create the Human Cell Atlas—a map revealing the identity of the body’s 20 trillion cells. Over a 5 year, first phase, the Atlas will “catalog all cell types and sub-types; distinguish cell states (e.g. a naive immune cell that has not yet encountered a pathogen compared to the same immune cell type after it is activated by encountering a bacterium); map cell types to their location within tissues and within the body; capture the key characteristics of cells during transitions, such as differentiation (from a stem cell) or activation; [and] trace the history of cells through a lineage—such as from a predecessor stem cell in bone marrow to a functioning red blood cell.” MORE
Image Credit: JSC Features NASA