New Publication: Integrated Human Breast Cell Atlas v1.0

The integrated Human Breast Cell Atlas (iHBCA) is now available on CAP. iHBCA v1.0 is a cross-study single-cell reference of the human breast, harmonizing 2,128,505 cells from 287 donors across seven published studies (Gray 2022, Kumar 2023, Murrow 2022, Nee 2023, Pal 2021, Reed 2024 and Twigger 2022). The cohort spans age, parity, lactation, and germline BRCA1/BRCA2 carrier status alongside non-carrier controls — a breadth that exceeds any single contributing study.

Cells are annotated manually at broad resolution into 11 groups across epithelial (basal-myoepithelial, luminal hormone sensing, luminal adaptive secretory precursor, lactocyte), stromal, endothelial, and immune compartments. The iHBCA refines the integrated atlas introduced by Reed et al. 2024 (Nature Genetics, DOI: 10.1038/s41588-024-01688-9). Future versions will incorporate finer-grained annotations, additional source studies, and spatial transcriptomic layers from Chromium FLEX and Xenium platforms.

We invite the breast and single-cell research communities to interrogate the iHBCA on CAP directly: comment, vote, and propose refinements where you see them.

Access the publication here: Integrated Human Breast Cell Atlas