Several University of Chicago https://www.uchicagomedicine.org scientists’ part of an international team of researchers, were awarded a three year, nearly $4 million grant to define every cell type in the human heart. The grant is part of $68 million in funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) https://chanzuckerberg.com to support the “Human Cell Atlas.”
“The idea for the scientists is to build a reference atlas to learn about the normal state of heart cells,” said Sebastian Pott, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Genetics. “This reference will allow us to better understand the cellular composition of the human heart as well as how it differs between individuals.”
Dr. Pott, explained, “We have a pretty good idea of the broad cell division that exists in heart muscle cells and cells that make up blood vessels in the heart. However, the closer we look, the more we realize that there are subtle changes of differences between cells that otherwise seem very similar. The challenge will be to carefully characterize how these cells differ within an individual heart.”