To create comprehensive reference maps of all human cells—the fundamental units of life—as a basis for both understanding human health and diagnosing, monitoring, and treating disease.
In addition to the HCA committees, the HCA has the following Working Groups.
The Analysis Working Group (AWG) organises working groups, data analysis teams, meetings, jamborees, and recommends experimental designs, analysis frameworks and best practices for different aspects and needs of the HCA, from data collection to the Data Coordination Platform (DCP). The AWG is co-chaired by Dana Pe’er and John Marioni.
The Data Ecosystem Oversight Group (DEO) provides guidance to, and oversight of, all aspects of the HCA data ecosystem. This includes data ingestion and storage, the integration of datasets, cell type annotation, and the HCA Data Portal. The DEO ensures the coordination of these and other data ecosystem activities and recommends improvements to the HCA Organising Committee (OC). It also defines standards around data and metadata formats and recommends these standards to the OC for approval. The DEO is co-chaired by Chloe Villani and Shyam Prabhakar.
The Ethics Working Group (EWG) has been set up to examine the ethical governance issues related to the HCA. The EWG does not provide legal opinions.
The role of the EWG includes:
The EWG reports to the HCA Organising Committee (OC). The EWG is an advisory group and is not responsible for decisions made with respect to the structure or governance of the HCA. The EWG is co-chaired by Bartha Knoppers, Barbara Wold and Roderic Guigo.
The Equity Working Group (EqWG) aims to promote and support progress towards equity in the HCA. The EqWG seeks to engage the global community spanning diverse geographic and ethnic groups to drive inclusive representation and participation, and promote equal benefit from the HCA. The EqWG’s initial focus is on empowerment to participate in the HCA through outreach, education, and training. The EqWG is co-chaired by Alex K Shalek, Partha Majumder and Musa Mhlanga.
The Diversity Task Force (DTF) will examine issues related to the tracking and sampling of diversity in HCA data. The DTF is co-chaired by Shyam Prabhakar, Kian Hong Kock and Sophia George.
The function of the Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) is to ensure communication and coordination between the scientific leadership, operational management, and representative funders. The JCC will evaluate and report back to the Funders Committee and HCA OC on the overall scope and executional success of the HCA operations in achieving the HCA’s mission, with special attention to ethical and legal matters. The JCC is co-chaired by Aviv Regev and Sarah Teichmann.
The Funders Collective is comprised of individuals from funding organisations with a shared interest in the goals of the HCA who desire to work in a collaborative manner.
The Standards and Technology Working Group (STWG) have two goals:
The STWG is co-chaired by Holger Heyn, Orit Rozenblatt-Rosen and Xiaowei Zhuang
Instituto Nacional de Câncer - INCA, Brazil
UK office
Massachusetts General Hospital, USA, Harvard Medical School, USA and Broad Institute, USA
Buenos Aires, Argentina
The Netherlands
John C. Martin Centre for Liver Research & Innovations and Liver Foundation, West Bengal, India
Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Germany
Université de Toulouse, France
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, Middle East
John C. Martin Centre for Liver Research & Innovations and Liver Foundation, West Bengal, India
Wellcome, UK
Cambridge University Hospitals, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge UK
Genentech, USA