Ambitious Stanford conference to plan an `atlas` for all human cells
(WorldNews Health)

As you read this, trillions of your cells are performing biology’s perfect symphony, keeping you alive and in tune. Yet they labor in anonymity, their names and performances largely unknown. An ambitious new consortium of international scientists, meeting at Stanford on Thursday and Friday, aims to change that. Their goal: The Human Cell Atlas, backed by Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg and his physician wife Priscilla Chan. Think of it as a vast LinkedIn for cell types, describing who they are, where they work and what they do — critical information for understanding both health and disease. “We believe it is feasible,” said conference organizer Steve Quake,...