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Title: Scientists Announce Progress Toward Ambitious Atlas of Human Cells

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/11/20/1...

Scientists unveiled on Wednesday the first blueprint of human skeletal
development as they make progress toward the goal of completing a biological
atlas of every cell type in the body to better understand human health and
diagnose and treat disease. From a report: The work is part of the ongoing
Human Cell Atlas project that was begun in 2016 and involves researchers
around the world. The human body comprises roughly 37 trillion cells, with
each cell type having a unique function. The researchers aim to have a first
draft of the atlas done in the next year or two. Aviv Regev, founding co-
chair of the project and currently executive vice president and head of
research and early development at U.S. biotech company Genentech, said the
work is important on two levels. "First of all, it's our basic human
curiosity. We want to know what we're made of. I think humans have always
wanted to know what they're made of. And, in fact, biologists have been
mapping cells since the 1600s for that reason," Regev said. "The second and
very pragmatic reason is that this is essential for us in order to understand
and treat disease. Cells are the basic unit of life, and when things go
wrong, they go wrong with our cells, first and foremost," Regev said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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