discovAIR · Project

Complete Cell Map of Human Lungs to Accelerate Drug Discovery for Lung Diseases

healthPrototypeTRL 4Thin data (2/5)

Imagine trying to fix a car engine without a parts manual — that's essentially where lung medicine has been. This project created the first detailed "parts catalogue" of every cell type in the human lung, mapping what each cell does and how cells change when someone gets asthma, COPD, or pulmonary fibrosis. They built an open-access platform where researchers and drug companies can explore this map interactively, making it far easier to spot the exact cells that go wrong in lung disease and find new targets for treatment.

By the numbers

consortium partners across the project

countries represented in the consortium

lung diseases profiled (asthma, COPD, IPF)

industry partners including SMEs

total deliverables produced

The business problem

What needed solving

Lung diseases are a leading cause of death globally, yet developing effective treatments has been painfully slow because we simply didn't have a complete inventory of all the cell types in the lung and how they behave in disease. Pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies investing in respiratory medicine have been working partially blind — targeting cells and pathways without a comprehensive reference map, leading to costly failures in drug development.

The solution

What was built

The project delivered a portal prototype for handling, analyzing, and interactively presenting single-cell lung data in spatial and temporal context, plus a dedicated software application for annotating and visualizing multimodal single-cell datasets. They also produced the first draft of the Human Lung Cell Atlas covering healthy tissue and 3 disease states (asthma, COPD, IPF), with spatial mapping and 3D tissue architecture reconstruction.

Audience

Who needs this

Pharmaceutical companies with respiratory drug discovery pipelines (asthma, COPD, IPF)Precision diagnostics companies developing biomarker-based lung disease testsBioinformatics and computational biology service providersContract research organizations (CROs) specializing in single-cell analysisRegenerative medicine companies targeting lung tissue repair

Business applications

Who can put this to work

Pharmaceuticals

enterprise

Target: Pharma companies with respiratory drug pipelines

If you are a pharmaceutical company developing treatments for asthma, COPD, or IPF — this project built the first draft of the Human Lung Cell Atlas with multimodal molecular profiling across 3 major lung diseases. The open-access data exploration platform lets your R&D teams identify new drug targets at the single-cell level, potentially cutting years off early-stage target discovery. The lung cell perturbation map shows exactly how cells transition from healthy to diseased states, giving you a roadmap for intervention points.

Diagnostics

mid-size

Target: Precision diagnostics and companion diagnostics developers

If you are a diagnostics company looking to develop biomarker-based tests for lung diseases — this project mapped cell states across asthma, COPD, and IPF at single-cell resolution with spatial context. The detailed molecular phenotyping of diseased vs. healthy tissue reveals candidate biomarkers for precision diagnostics. Their software application for annotation and visualization of multimodal single-cell data could accelerate your biomarker validation workflows.

Digital Health & Bioinformatics

any

Target: Computational biology platform companies and CROs

If you are a bioinformatics company or contract research organization handling single-cell data — this project developed a portal prototype for data handling, analysis, and interactive presentation of single-cell information in a spatiotemporal context. They also built a dedicated software application for annotation and visualization of multimodal single-cell feature datasets. These tools, embedded in the Human Cell Atlas infrastructure, represent a reusable technology stack for any single-cell research service.

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What would it cost to access the lung cell atlas data and platform?

The discovAIR platform was designed as open-access for the scientific community and is embedded in the Human Cell Atlas infrastructure. Based on available project data, no licensing fees for data access are indicated. However, building proprietary applications on top of this data or integrating it into commercial pipelines may require separate agreements.

Can this data and platform scale to support commercial drug discovery programs?

The project profiled lung tissue across 3 major diseases (asthma, COPD, IPF) using multimodal molecular approaches including spatial mapping and 3D tissue reconstruction. The portal prototype was specifically designed for data handling, analysis, and interactive presentation at scale. Embedding in the Human Cell Atlas infrastructure provides long-term sustainability for growing datasets.

What is the IP situation — can we use these tools commercially?

The project was funded as an RIA (Research and Innovation Action), and the platform is described as open-access. The software application for annotation and visualization and the portal prototype were developed within a consortium of 18 partners across 7 countries. Based on available project data, specific licensing terms for commercial use of the software tools would need to be discussed with the coordinator.

How validated is this atlas — is it ready for regulatory-grade applications?

The project delivered a first draft of the Human Lung Cell Atlas, which represents a research-grade reference. The portal prototype and visualization tools were developed for the scientific community. Based on available project data, regulatory validation for clinical or diagnostic use would require additional work beyond what this project delivered.

What diseases does this cover and could it expand to others?

The atlas currently covers healthy lung tissue plus 3 disease states: asthma, COPD, and IPF (idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis). The computational approaches and platform infrastructure were built to be extensible. The embedding in the Human Cell Atlas means additional lung conditions could potentially be mapped using the same methods and integrated into the existing platform.

How long would it take to integrate this into our existing R&D pipeline?

The portal prototype is already operational for data exploration and analysis. The software application for annotation and visualization handles multimodal single-cell datasets. Based on available project data, the tools were designed for scientific community use, so integration into commercial R&D pipelines would depend on your existing bioinformatics infrastructure and specific use case.

Consortium

Who built it

The discovAIR consortium of 18 partners across 7 countries is heavily research-oriented, with 8 research organizations and 5 universities forming the backbone. Only 2 industry partners (11% industry ratio) were involved, both SMEs, which signals this is primarily a scientific infrastructure project rather than one driven toward commercial products. The coordinator is Academisch Ziekenhuis Groningen, a Dutch academic hospital. For a business looking to leverage these results, the low industry participation means there may be less competition for commercial applications but also less existing commercial infrastructure to plug into. The 7-country spread (CH, DE, FR, HU, NL, SE, UK) covers major European pharma and biotech hubs, providing potential access points for collaboration.

ACADEMISCH ZIEKENHUIS GRONINGENCoordinator · NL
DEUTSCHES ZENTRUM FUR NEURODEGENERATIVE ERKRANKUNGEN EVthirdparty · DE
CENTRE HOSPITALIER UNIVERSITAIRE DE NICEparticipant · FR
THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGEparticipant · UK
INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA SANTE ET DE LA RECHERCHE MEDICALEthirdparty · FR
KUNGLIGA TEKNISKA HOEGSKOLANparticipant · SE
COMMA SOFT AGparticipant · DE
GENOME RESEARCH LIMITED LBGparticipant · UK
EUROPEAN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY LABORATORYparticipant · DE
HELMHOLTZ ZENTRUM MUENCHEN DEUTSCHES FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM FUER GESUNDHEIT UND UMWELT GMBHparticipant · DE
UMCG RESEARCH BVthirdparty · NL
HUN-REN SZEGEDI BIOLOGIAI KUTATOKOZPONTparticipant · HU
RHEINISCHE FRIEDRICH-WILHELMS-UNIVERSITAT BONNparticipant · DE
CARTANA ABparticipant · SE
EUROPEAN RESPIRATORY SOCIETYparticipant · CH
CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRSparticipant · FR
EUROPEAN LUNG FOUNDATIONparticipant · UK
STOCKHOLMS UNIVERSITETparticipant · SE

How to reach the team

Academisch Ziekenhuis Groningen (Netherlands) — search for discovAIR project lead or Human Lung Cell Atlas coordinator at UMCG

Order a report on this consortium See ACADEMISCH ZIEKENHUIS GRONINGEN profile →

Next steps

Talk to the team behind this work.

Want to explore how lung cell atlas data could accelerate your respiratory R&D pipeline? SciTransfer can arrange an introduction to the discovAIR team and help you evaluate the commercial potential for your specific use case.

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