HUTER and HUGODECA partners share impressions about data platforms

Date: December 3rd 2021

The European Commission is funding six pilot actions (HCA Organoid, DIscovAIR, HUTER, Braintime, HUGODECA and ESPACE) within the Horizon2020 Research and Innovation Framework Program, starting from January 2020. Each project has been designed to characterize single cells or their nuclear components, their interactions and/or spatial location in tissues from one human organ, using state-of-the-art single cell technologies, analytical methods and computational tools, and brings together European experts in the respective fields who are joining their efforts to support the creation of the human cell atlas. All pilots have signed a collaboration agreement to share information among them and to enhance the development of common technologies, approaches, discoveries and so forth generated in this framework.

In this context, HUTER and HUGODECA partner’s representatives held a meeting last Friday December 3rd to explore synergies and opportunities for collaboration. Sergio Figueiras and Cristobal Bernardo (from BAHIA SOFTWARE, partner of HUTER) contacted with Laurence Noël (from INSERM, partner of HUGODECA) and shared impressions, opinions and problems regarding their respective data platforms and the use of open standards for advanced imaging and complex single cell metadata. Both project representatives highlighted the importance of standards compatible with the complex metadata originated in cell sequencing to foster technologies and discoveries not only in the scientific field but also in real clinical environments. In the same way, both partners commented potential collaborations even beyond of HCA project, for instance in the framework of the Horizon Europe program to apply the results obtained so far to the specific challenges announced by the European Commission.

The HUTER project will provide unprecedented insights at transcriptomic, genomic and spatial changes of the uterus throughout the menstrual cycle as well as across lifespan.

HUGODECA is working on understanding the cellular composition and organization of the developing human gonads.