​Abstract

​The Human Reference Atlas (HRA), an international collaboration across 25+ consortia, is a groundbreaking effort to map the human body in unprecedented detail, from organs down to cells and biomarkers. Using a common coordinate framework, new experimental data can be mapped into the HRA using cell type annotation tools, validated antibody panels, or spatial tissue registration. This enables researchers to harmonize information at scale to better understand changes that occur in the human body with aging, disease, and other perturbations. The HRA is a vital tool for advancing precision health and precision medicine, allowing us to tailor treatments and interventions more precisely to individual needs.

​This talk will explain how the HRA was constructed, demonstrate its role in precision medicine, and showcase interactive user interfaces and applications.

​Fig. 3: Human Reference Atlas usage.

​From: Börner, Katy, Philip Blood, Jonathan C. Silverstein, et al. 2025. "Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP): 3D Human Reference Atlas Construction and Usage". Nature Methods. doi: 10.1038/s41592-024-02563-5

​Bio

​Katy Börner is the Victor H. Yngve Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Information Science in the Departments of Intelligent Systems Engineering and Information Science, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering; core faculty of the Cognitive Science Program; and founding director of the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center – all at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. She is a curator of the Mapping Science exhibit and she leads the international Human Reference Atlas effort.

​She holds an MS in electrical engineering from the University of Technology in Leipzig, and a PhD in computer science from the University of Kaiserslautern. Börner is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a Humboldt Research Fellow, an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Fellow, and a Network Society Fellow.