A cloud platform to share and explore detailed maps of human tissues
Official title: Flexible Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure for Seamless Integration and Use of Human Biomolecular Data and Reference Maps [1 of 5]
Funded at Carnegie-Mellon University · NIH-11376865 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Building a shared online system that brings together high-resolution maps of human tissues so researchers and clinicians can better understand health and disease.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Carnegie-Mellon University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Pittsburgh, United States) |
| Project start | August 3, 2022 |
| Project end | July 31, 2026 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $1,147,097 |
| NIH project number | 3OT2OD033759-01S6 |
| Project ID | NIH-11376865 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal participants are people willing to donate tissue or clinical data through partner centers (for example during surgery or biopsy) or who enroll in linked tissue-collection efforts.
✕Less likely to help
This project does not provide direct medical care or experimental treatments, so people seeking immediate clinical benefits are unlikely to benefit directly.
What this research studies
This project creates tools and cloud infrastructure to combine many types of tissue measurements into a single, searchable Human Reference Atlas. Teams will collect and standardize molecular and spatial data from human tissue samples, build a common coordinate framework to locate cells and structures, and make interactive visualizations on the HuBMAP portal. The work is a collaboration among universities and supercomputing centers to ensure the system scales and stays open to the community. Patients can expect that data from donated tissues will be integrated into maps that researchers worldwide can use.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, these shared tissue maps could help scientists find where key molecules and cells are located in healthy and diseased tissues, speeding discovery of new diagnostics and therapies.
How similar studies have gone: Related atlas efforts like the Human Cell Atlas and organ-specific atlases have produced useful reference data, but this project focuses on broader multimodal integration and scalable cloud access, making the approach partly proven but also novel in scope.
Where this research is happening
-
Carnegie-Mellon University
Pittsburgh, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Blood, Philip D. — Carnegie-Mellon University
- Study coordinator: Blood, Philip D.
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.