Press release

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

The adult human body is made up of billions of cells.

The Bio-Molecular Atlas Program of the National Institutes of Health (HuBMAP) has released its first set of research grants to develop an open global framework that will support the efforts of the scientific community to map the adult human body. HuBMAP is a program of the NIH Common Fund. Common Fund programs address emerging scientific opportunities and priority challenges for NIH. The HuBMAP awards total $ 54 million over the next four years, pending the availability of funds.

The adult human body is composed of tens of trillions of cells carefully organized into tissues to carry out the daily processes in order to stay alive and healthy. The organization, specialization and cooperation of different cells in each normal tissue have a profound impact on the growth, function and aging of tissues. These factors can also indicate the onset of a disease. For example, immune cells reside in normal tissues as part of their regular surveillance functions. The ability to detect subtle changes in the activity of individual immune cells and in their interactions with other cells in the tissues would help signal the onset of disease before symptoms are clinically detectable.

Understanding the important high resolution characteristics of cells in tissues remains a challenge. Newly developed technologies, including many technologies supported by NIH programs, allow researchers to explore the organization of large numbers of cells at each cell level. These advances have allowed to study and map the organization of all cells in the tissues or organs of the human body. Although HuBMAP is not supposed to map the whole body, the work will start, providing a framework for more complete mapping and data provision for the research community for further study.

Thanks to the research grants, the HuBMAP investigators will:

  • Generate, standardize and validate extended datasets on cell organization and variability using existing technologies;
  • Develop new tools and techniques to build high resolution tissue maps; and
  • Coordinate program activities, manage HuBMAP data and create an atlas of tissue maps.

"We are delighted that HuBMAP is beginning its journey to expand our understanding of the principles of tissue organization," said James M. Anderson, MD, Ph.D., director of the Division of Program Coordination, planning and strategic initiatives. oversees the NIH Common Fund. "We expect HuBMAP to provide a critical framework for global efforts to comprehensively understand the human body at the biomolecular level."

HuBMAP is funded by the NIH Common Fund. It is managed by a trans-NIH working group and led by Common Fund staff; National Institute of Heart, Lung and Blood; National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Biological Engineering; and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

About the NIH Common Fund: The NIH Common Fund encourages collaboration and supports a series of trans-NIH programs with exceptional impact. The Common Fund programs are managed by the Office of Strategic Coordination of the Division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives of the NIH Board of Directors, in partnership with NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices. Further information is available on the Common Fund website: https://commonfund.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):
The NIH, the country's medical research agency, comprises 27 institutes and centers and is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the lead federal agency responsible for leading and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research. He is currently studying the causes, treatments and treatments for common and rare diseases. For more information on NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

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