On May 13, 2022, the Tabula Sapiens Consortium announced it had published a molecular reference atlas for more than 400 cell types of the human body. The Tabula Sapiens Consortium used single-cell transcriptomics to measure the messenger RNA molecules in each of nearly 500,000 cells from 24 tissues and organs. These data enable new insights into how the human genome parts list is used to create distinct cell types within the human organism.

The Tabula Sapiens also provided an opportunity to densely and directly sample the human microbiome throughout the gastrointestinal tract. The intestines from two donors were sectioned into five regions: the duodenum, jejunum, ileum, and ascending and sigmoid colon. Each section was transected, and three to nine samples were collected from each location, followed by amplification and sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene.

The Tabula Sapiens is part of a growing set of data that, when analyzed together, will enable many interesting comparisons of both a biological and technical nature. Studying particular cell types across organs, datasets, and species will yield new biological insights—as shown with fibroblasts (32). Similarly, comparing fetal human cell types (33) with those determined in this work in adults may give insight into the loss of plasticity from early development to maturity.