The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative invites applications for three-year collaborative projects for the generation of healthy, single-cell reference data from pediatric tissue samples for the Human Cell Atlas (HCA).
The Human Cell Atlas (HCA) is a global effort to create a reference map of all cell types in the healthy human body in order to generate a fundamental reference for biomedical research and improve our understanding of health and disease. With advances in single-cell biology technology and growing interest from the international community, this scientific grassroots project has progressed from conceivable to feasible. Progress over the past several years has resulted in remarkable advancement toward first drafts of many adult organs and tissues. However, similar reference data for pediatric tissues is less commonly represented in emerging tissue atlases. Yet this data is critically important for clarifying cellular maturation through childhood while building a foundation for understanding disease progression and therapeutic strategies in children.
This Request for Applications (RFA) welcomes proposals that will make significant contributions toward single-cell reference data for the community of patients, clinicians, and researchers engaged in pediatric research. This opportunity is intended to support active collaborative teams of researchers that have access to established resources and protocols that are ready to be extended and scaled. The opportunity is also intended to support new collaborative teams that will benefit from the experience of existing teams while bringing complementary and differentiated perspectives and resources. The opportunity aims to support a variety of collaborative teams that will all make contributions to the larger community via regular engagement and sharing of learnings, data, samples, and other resources.
Application Deadline: March 30, 2021, by 5 p.m. Pacific Time