Human Organ Atlas Collaboration/European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
Image of a human eye seen in X-ray
A new map of the human body shows complete organs in an unprecedented level of detail and opens a window into structures that until now have remained hidden from medicine.
The initiative brings together images of bodies such as the brain, heart, lungs, liver or kidneysbut it goes far beyond its external form.
The project, called , makes it possible to observe tissues and cells in three dimensions with an accuracy of about one micron.
According to , its main value lies in revealing how the organism is organized internally, from major anatomical systems to cellular details capable of explaining diseases, vascular injuries or infrequent changes.
In a new one, published in March in Science Advancesresearchers used a technique called hierarchical phase contrast tomography (HiP-CT), which uses X-rays generated at a synchroton.
This technology makes it possible to study intact human organs, from donors, without destroying the samples and with much higher resolution than conventional medical exams.
The technical secret lies in the accelerator Extremely Brilliant Sourcea fourth generation X-ray source described as being up to 100 billion times more powerful than a conventional hospital x-ray.
Thanks to this power, it is possible to create three-dimensional reconstructions of complete organs and, subsequently, enlarge images of specific areas until they reach a cellular scale.
So far, the atlas includes 87 organs and 363 three-dimensional datasetsobtained from 54 donors. Some samples come from the same person, which makes it possible to analyze how a disease or a previous condition can leave marks on different systems of the body and not just on an isolated organ.
The medical potential of this atlas has already been demonstrated in previous investigations related to vascular lesions in the lungs of people who died from COVID-19 and with characteristics of adenomiosea non-cancerous gynecological disease.
It also includes samples related to cancer and rare pathologies, such as Dandy Walker Syndromea congenital anomaly that affects less than one in every 30,000 newborns.
In addition to being essential for human anatomy, the project can become a training base for AI models applied to healthcare.
“I’m excited to see how the community uses the Human Organ Atlas in fundamental artificial intelligence models,” concludes the study’s first author, Claire Walsh.
