News article

Mapping the Future of Medicine – the Human Cell Atlas

15/11/2018

In April 2003, a landmark event in the history of genetics research occurred with the completion and publication of the human genome. This was the culmination of a 13-year international collaborative research effort to completely map all the genes of human beings. The aim was to give scientists the ability to understand the genetic factors in human disease and start devising new strategies for their diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Now, some 15 years later, an equally historic project is underway thanks, in large part, to the vital support of major international funders in the UK, US and elsewhere. That project began in London in October 2016 when a group of world-leading scientists gathered to discuss how to construct a Human Cell Atlas (HCA), a series of maps describing and defining the cellular basis of health and disease. The HCA will build on the work of the human genome and have a similarly profound impact on the future of medicine.