NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) announced today that it has committed $15 million to fund a series of one-year research projects that will develop tools and datasets in support of the Human Cell Atlas.
The Human Cell Atlas was launched in 2016 to create a reference atlas of all human cell types by using single-cell genomics approaches to produce 3D maps of how different cells function together, and how changes in these networks can lead to disease. The initiative aims to produce its first draft by 2022.
CZI said it will provide $15 million to fund 85 projects that aim to create computational tools, algorithms, visualizations, and benchmark datasets to help the broader scientific community make use of the large quantity of molecular and imaging data being generated by Human Cell Atlas participants.
The money will be provided to 83 principal investigators at 53 institutions including the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Eastern Finland, the Broad Institute, and the Weizmann Institute of Science. Grant recipients are expected to collaborate with each other, as well as with CZI science and software engineering teams, to make the resources widely available.
Additional details about the funded projects can be found here.