WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) – More than 3,600 scientists from more than 100 countries have taken a major step forward in ‘understanding the human body’ by creating an early map of approximately 37.2 trillion cells.

Researchers analyzed more than 10,000 people for the project, which was first launched in 2016, according to several papers published in Nature and related journals.

“Cells are the basic unit of life, and when things go wrong, first of all, they go wrong in our cells,” said Aviv Regev, founding co-lead of the Human Cell Atlas and vice president of research and early development at Genentech. .

‘The challenge we faced was that we didn’t know the cells well enough to understand how variants and mutations in our genes actually affect diseases. ‘Once we have this map, we can find the causes of diseases better.’

Researchers hope the high-resolution cell atlas will help doctors identify diseases, understand the workings of genes and cell development, and unlock new treatments.

The final draft of the atlas is expected to be published in 2026, providing detailed information about the location, identity and function of cells found in organs and body systems.

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