NIH and Human Cell Atlas to Host Joint Meeting in 2020 in Bethesda, Md.

The National Institutes of Health and the Human Cell Atlas (HCA) will jointly host an open working meeting to encourage the sharing of best practices, lessons learned, and cutting-edge technologies and analytics across single cell atlas-building programs. The meeting will be held March 30 - April 1, 2020, at the Hyatt Regency Bethesda in Bethesda, MD.

The goal of the meeting is to build a stronger international ecosystem for single cell analysis work by bringing together key researchers in experimental techniques, data management, and analysis to build synergy through agreeing on sharing, standards, pilot projects, and cross-consortia resources.

Recent advances in single cell and spatial genomics have opened the way to systematic mapping at high resolution of tissues in health and disease. Recently launched programs and consortia share common challenges and opportunities, including the identification of appropriate clinical and assay metadata; the integration of disparate, yet complementary, molecular and image-based data; and the challenge of defining common coordinate frameworks on which to base atlases and relate data.

In-person attendance is highly recommended, though parts of the meeting will also be videocast.

To learn more about the NIH-HCA 2020 Joint Meeting or to register for free, visit https://hubmapconsortium.org/nihhca2020.