A cell atlas is also a record of choices: whose tissue was collected, which cells survived, and what the assay could see.
A shared reference for the lung
The integrated Human Lung Cell Atlas v1.0 brought together 49 datasets. Its healthy core draws on 107 individuals, with cell-type annotations agreed by six experts. The work of making studies comparable is part of the achievement: a shared reference lets other researchers place their own samples in context.
Human Lung Cell Atlas · Data and methodsThe experiment inside the dataset
The HCA Data Portal sets standards for describing assays, experimental designs and metadata. Those details matter when data is reused. A model needs more than a cell’s measurements; researchers also need to know where the sample came from and how it was collected.
How the HCA Data Portal worksWhere the story goes next
- Does a model work on a new donor, a new laboratory and a new disease—not just a held-out portion of the same experiment?
- What can observational cell atlases teach us, and where do we need experiments that perturb a gene or a cell?
- Who can access and reuse the data, and who is represented in it?
Editorial preview · Coverage in development