MITCHELL S.D. (MITCHELLNOW) There is an initiative to map all 37 trillion of the human body’s cells. Already, more than 200 different types of cells and their functions have been identified, including specialized heart muscle and nerve cells.
The Human Cell Atlas Project has revealed that there are thousands of different cells and tiny mutations that can cause all sorts of diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease and cystic fibrosis. The Project has more than 3,600 scientists doing research in 100 countries performing analyses on 100 million cells taken from over 10,000 people.
The Human Cell Atlas Project began in 2016 and has already mapped the gut – from mouth to anus – and determined the cell types that cause Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis. It is hoped that this research will lead to new gene therapies and other treatments to combat disease, especially chronic diseases.