Sanger Human Cell Atlasing Project (HCA)

Sanger Human Cell Atlasing Project. Defining Human Cells in Terms of Gene Expression, Physiological States,Developmental Trajectories, and Location.

"Cell Atlasing" refers to a novel strategy to characterise cells in tissues at the molecular level in a quantitative manner. The international Human Cell Atlas consortium brings together a community of biologists, clinicians, technologists, physicists, computational scientists, software engineers, and mathematicians to capitalise on drawing together leaders with various biological, technical and computational expertise. The project is based on the aim to define all human cell types in terms of their distinctive patterns of gene expression, physiological states, developmental trajectories, and location. This will pave the way to create a reference map of all human cells as a basis for understanding human health and diagnosing, monitoring, and treating disease.

Study Overview

• Status: Enrolling by invitation
• Conditions: Genetic Disease; Human Development
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: sample collection

Detailed Description

Previous methods for quantifying molecular states of cells included microarray and standard RNA-seq analysis on a tissue section (RNA-seq is a technique to look at the activity of all the genes in a cell). These methods estimate the activity of any given gene by averaging the signal from millions of cells. Given the heterogeneity of cell populations (i.e.how uniform they are), measurement of the mean values of signals overlooks the internal interactions and differences within a cell population that may be crucial for maintaining normal tissue function and facilitating disease progression.

The Sanger Human Cell Atlasing project will adopt various genomic approaches that will provide genome-wide information in a single experiment. This project aims to scale up the single cell genomics and high-throughput highly multiplex spatial gene expression profiling approaches. Coupled with powerful computational methods, this strategy will produce a comprehensive and systematic reference map of human cells, providing a fundamental blueprint of cell states for both basic biological research and clinical practice.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Estimated): 4000

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United Kingdom
  • Cambridge, United Kingdom
    • Wellcome Sanger Institute

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Samples are from the living and the deceased age 0 to 99+ from healthy and diseased individuals, to facilitate atlasing of the entire human body.

Samples for this study will be obtained from tissue banks and ethically approved research studies where consent has been taken for use of the samples in future research.

Prospective samples will also be collected via collaborators at NHS sites. This will allow for the collection of all cell types to fulfil the aims of the study. We will provide collaborators with study specific participant information sheets and informed consent forms to recruit potential donors.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Samples are from the living and the deceased age 0 to 99+ from healthy and diseased individuals.
• All samples will have fully informed consent for use in research.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Samples taken without consent for use in future research
• Samples taken from individuals without the capacity to consent to use in research

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
This project aims to scale up the single cell genomics and high-throughput highly multiplex spatial gene expression profiling approaches.	Coupled with powerful computational methods, this strategy will produce a comprehensive and systematic reference map of human cells, providing a fundamental blueprint of cell states for both basic biological research and clinical practice.	10 years

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The Wellcome Sanger Institute
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Sarah Teichmann, Wellcome Sanger Institute

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 16, 2019
• Primary Completion (Estimated): November 7, 2029
• Study Completion (Estimated): November 7, 2029

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 4, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 4, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): July 12, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 12, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 4, 2024
• Last Verified: July 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Genetic Diseases, Inborn
• Other Study ID Numbers: 260474

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No