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  • The Multiscale Human

The Multiscale Human

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Is it possible to create a multiscale map of the human body?

The human body has 37 trillion cells. In this incredibly complex and dynamic system, changes at the molecular level alter cell behaviour, tissue architecture and the function of organs; in the other direction, changes in the environment can feed into the body and cause molecular changes. The Multiscale Human Team seeks to understand the system at all these scales to create an unprecedented map of the human body and help drive medical advances.

The fundamental challenge the researchers will address in The Multiscale Human is how to integrate data from various spatial and temporal scales across the body while accounting for diversity in the 8 billion strong global population. To do this, the program will bring together researchers with diverse disciplines and a shared goal — to understand, map, and communicate the multiscale human.

Applications Now Open: CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars Program

The Multiscale Human program seeks to understand how the human body works across scales, from molecules all the way up to organs and physiological systems. In this incredibly complex and dynamic system, changes at the molecular level alter cell behaviour, tissue architecture and the function of organs; in the other direction, changes in the environment can feed into the body and cause molecular changes via effects on physiological systems. Even with recent technological advances that enable us to measure the human body at ever higher resolution, our understanding of how information transfers between scales to maintain health and to cause disease is rather limited. Further, most fields, from molecular biology to medicine only routinely consider one scale. There is a tremendous opportunity to transcend disciplinary barriers and develop more holistic multiscale models of healthy and diseased human body systems. A fundamental challenge is how to accomplish this by integrating large experimental data from many spatial and temporal scales while considering diversity in the 8 billion strong global population. The Multiscale Human program aims to understand the system at all these scales, creating an unprecedented reference atlas of the human body.

The program brings together a diverse set of researchers across Biochemistry, Biology, Biomedical Sciences, Biophysics, Clinical Research, Computer Science, Computational Biology, Data Science, Engineering, Imaging, Neuroscience, and Physics. This set of researchers and practitioners will address how to integrate data from various modalities across spatial and temporal scales and across the global population. Our multiscale and interdisciplinary approach, aided by comprehensive and quantitative maps and models, will revolutionise the understanding, treatment and prediction of the major diseases that provide such a heavy burden to society and make it possible for many to live healthier, happier, and longer lives.

Apply now

Path to Societal Impact

Areas of focus:

  • Catalyzing medically relevant discoveries about how the human body works, from development to disease and aging
  • Working with large biobank consortia to explore ways of incorporating global health and genetic data into multiscale maps and models of the human body
  • Bringing together biologists with imaging, computational and digital cartography specialists to spur the development of new tools, both in hardware and software

Founded

2023

CIFAR Contact

Fiona Cunningham

Fellows & Advisors

Program Directors

Gary Bader

Gary Bader

Program Co-Director

The Multiscale Human
University of Toronto
Canada
Katy Börner

Katy Börner

Program Co-Director

The Multiscale Human
Indiana University
United States
Sarah Teichmann

Sarah Teichmann

Program Co-Director

The Multiscale Human
Wellcome Sanger Institute
United Kingdom

Fellows

Alain Chédotal

Alain Chédotal

Fellow

The Multiscale Human
Institut de la Vision
France
Barbara Engelhardt

Barbara Engelhardt

Fellow

The Multiscale Human
Gladstone Institutes
Stanford University
United States
Ali Ertürk

Ali Ertürk

Fellow

The Multiscale Human
Helmholtz Munich / LMU Munich
Germany
Ferdia Gallagher

Ferdia Gallagher

Fellow

The Multiscale Human
University of Cambridge
United Kingdom
Sidhartha Goyal

Sidhartha Goyal

Fellow

The Multiscale Human
University of Toronto
Canada
Muzlifah Haniffa

Muzlifah Haniffa

Fellow

The Multiscale Human
Wellcome Sanger Institute
United Kingdom
Peter Lee

Peter Lee

Fellow

The Multiscale Human
University College London
United Kingdom
Ed Lein

Ed Lein

Fellow

The Multiscale Human
Allen Institute for Brain Science
United States
Dana Pe'er

Dana Pe'er

Fellow

The Multiscale Human
Sloan Kettering Institute
United States
Aviv Regev

Aviv Regev

Fellow

The Multiscale Human
Human Cell Atlas
Nozomu Yachie

Nozomu Yachie

Fellow

The Multiscale Human
Osaka University
University of British Columbia
University of Tokyo
Canada
Peter Zandstra

Peter Zandstra

Fellow

The Multiscale Human
University of British Columbia
Canada
Mei Zhen

Mei Zhen

Fellow

The Multiscale Human
Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute
Canada

Nouvelles

Future Flourishing

The Future of Being Human

CIFAR unveiled three new programs that were selected from the Global Call for Ideas. These programs embody high-risk, hi...

June 06, 2023

Announcement

CIFAR’s Global Call for Ideas yields bold, new lines of inquiry on the future of being human

CIFAR’s Global Call for Ideas yields bold, new lines of inquiry on the future of being human

April 03, 2023
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