Project description
Human tissue organoid platform within the Human Cell Atlas initiative
The Human Cell Atlas project is a global scientific initiative with the goal to map and characterise all cells in the human body by types, numbers, locations, relationships and molecular structure. It is considered a fundamental future resource for scientists, enabling understanding of how healthy cells work and what happens in the case of a disease. The EU-funded HCA Organoid project will create a Human Organoid Atlas within the Human Cell Atlas initiative with the goal to deepen an ability to draw functional/causal/mechanistic conclusions relevant to human diseases. The project will establish single-cell transcriptomes, single-cell epigenomes and imaging data for several thousand organoids and matched primary tissue. Initially, focus will be on the colon and the brain with additional organs included as pilot studies. In general, this resource will enable characterisation of normal population variations and provide a baseline for disease studies.
Objective
"Excellence: The Human Cell Atlas (HCA) is descriptive by definition, as it seeks to map all cells in the human body. Yet its goal of “understanding fundamental human biological processes and diagnosing, monitoring, and treating disease” (HCA Whitepaper) depends on our ability to draw functional/causal/mechanistic conclusions relevant to human diseases. Personalized organoid technology aptly fills this gap, as it makes human tissue amenable to functional studies and faithful disease modeling in vitro.
This project will firmly establish a ""Human Organoid Atlas"" within the HCA. Initially focusing on two organs (colon and brain: 100 distinct organoid lines each). We will establish single-cell transcriptomes, single-cell epigenomes, and time-series imaging for several thousand organoids and matched primary tissue. This resource will primarily quantify normal population variation and provide a baseline for disease studies. Moreover, the project will include data generation and analysis of >20 colorectal cancer organoid lines with matching organoid lines derived from normal (healthy) material as well as the respective matching primary tissue. We will show the practical utility of the resource by proof-of-concept disease modeling for genetic epilepsy (brain) and large-scale characterization of disease-linked genetic variants (colon).
Impact: 1. Deeply characterized organoid collection enables functional and disease-centric studies pursuing HCA insights. 2. Single-cell dataset provides reference of population variation under highly standardized conditions. 3. Linking single-cell profiling and organoids will boost HCA’s impact on human health.
Implementation: The project connects the European founders of organoid research (Hans Clevers, Jürgen Knoblich) with expertise in large-scale epigenome/transcriptome profiling (Christoph Bock, Henk Stunnenberg), advanced imaging (Prisca Liberali, Anne Rios), bioinformatics and systems genetics (Oliver Stegle, Michael Boutros), data management (Laura Clarke/EBI), and strong SME contribution (Hubrecht Organoid Technology, Eurice). The project is fully committed to the HCA's values. It implements extensive data sharing and sustainability measures."
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
1090 Wien
Austria