An integrated transcriptomic cell atlas of human neural organoids

The Human Cell Atlas data provides the “recipe” for tissue engineering, including organoids. Human organoids – three-dimensional structures of cells that recapitulate organ development in vitro – hold tremendous potential for biomedical applications. They provide tractable models of human physiology and pathology, thereby enabling interventional studies that are difficult or impossible to conduct in human subjects, and reducing the need for animal experiments. Moreover, they can provide patient-specific “avatars” for drug development and personalized therapies, and they help advance regenerative medicine, with the ultimate goal of aiming towards regenerative medicine, and producing functional biological structures that can be transplanted into patients.

Single-cell epigenome/transcriptome sequencing and spatial profiling can provide a comprehensive assessment of cell composition and cell states within organoids, enabling a comparison to matched primary tissue samples. These comparisons can catalyse the development of better organoid protocols. The Organoid Cell Atlas will foster the production, quality control, dissemination, and utilization of single-cell data for human organoids, and it will connect such datasets with the comprehensive profiles of primary tissue that are being generated within the HCA.