SCIENTISTS hope they are closer to an asthma cure after creating the first human lung map.
The “atlas” charting every cell in the organ has already transformed knowledge of the disease.
It includes the building blocks of the respiratory systems in both patients and healthy people – offering hope for the development of new drug treatments for 350million sufferers.
It was used to discover which cells cause mucus production in asthmatics, whose lungs were compared with healthy ones.
Senior author Dr Sarah Teichmann, of the Wellcome Sanger Institute and co-chair of the Human Cell Atlas Organising Committee, said: “As part of the Human Cell Atlas initiative, we have created the first comprehensive cellular map of the lungs.
“Our large-scale, open access data reveals the activity of different cells, their communication pathways and locations.
“The lung cell atlas will provide a great resource for further lung research and we hope that it will enable the identification of potential new therapeutic targets for asthma relief.”
Now they plan to map every body cell in a vast project called the Human Cell Atlas Initiative.
It’s hoped the global initiative will eventually boost research into illnesses ranging from asthma to dementia, heart disease and cancer.