Objective

The Human Cell Atlas is a new international initiative that aims to define all human cell types in terms of their gene expression and other distinctive molecular characteristics. This information will be linked with features such as location and morphology to provide a comprehensive reference map of the molecular states of cells within healthy human tissues. This will provide an extremely valuable resource to empower the global research community to systematically study the biological changes associated with different diseases, understand where genes associated with disease are active in our bodies, analyse the molecular mechanisms that govern the production and activity of different cell types, and sort out how different cell types combine and work together to form tissues. To achieve this, disparate fields of expertise in biology, medicine, genomics, technology development, and computation (including data analysis, software engineering, and visualization) will need to come together in a coherent, concerted way. Furthermore, an international effort must be able to compare across diverse cell types and tissue types in consistent ways, while studying samples from diverse human communities. I will introduce this nascent initiative and discuss how it will be achieved by groups working together throughout the world.