The Human Lung Cell Atlas aims to identify the stable and transient molecular features of all cells in the healthy human lung, and the changes thereof in lung disease. Prof. Nawijn has played a leading role in this multidisciplinary, international research effort, acting as coordinator for the Lung bionetwork of the Human Cell Atlas consortium, by leading a Horizon2020-funded consortium and coordinating research activities across several international consortia including NIH-supported LungMAP and HuBMAP programs, and the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative funded Lung Cel Atlas v1.0 network. The first fully integrated Human Lung Cell Atlas with consensus cell-type labels and systematic descriptions of cell-type specific transcriptional phenotypesacross several lung diseases has been published recently in Nature Medicine.
Future progress in the field is focused on translating these revolutionary molecular insights into the cellular landscape of lung tissue in health and disease into the design of precision medicine for lung diseases, which at this moment lack curative treatment options and cause significant morbidity and mortality.
