Wellcome to fund Human Cell Atlas

Wellcome are to inject £7m funding into the Human Cell Atlas project which aims to create a map of every cell type in the human body. It will also help scientists to understand human development and create a detailed atlas of the skin, and help them to compare tissue and cell properties at different stages of life.

Dr Sarah Teichmann, head of cellular genetics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and co-chair of the Human Cell Atlas Organising Committee will be in charge of the new project. She said: “The Human Cell Atlas will transform our understanding of human health and disease, and we are excited to be able to embark on the next stage of this important project. The new funding will bring together scientists from a huge variety of disciplines across the UK to enable the collection of data from millions of cells and drive progress towards this ambitious goal.”

Dr Michael Dunn, head of genetics and molecular sciences at Wellcome said: “The UK has a long history as a leader in these major global genomics projects and the Human Cell Atlas, as a natural successor to the Human Genome Project, will be no exception. The new funding builds on decades of progress and investment from Wellcome in the field of genomics. We are really excited to be part of this huge global effort that will have such important implications for medicine and health.”