ReviewCell genomics2026
Are different populations fairly represented in single-cell omic atlases?
Review in Cell genomics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Single-cell omic atlases are transforming biology and medicine, yet their demographic representativeness has not been systematically evaluated. We analyzed >13,500 samples from the Human Cell Atlas (HCA), Human Tumor Atlas Network (HTAN), and PsychAD Consortium. Benchmarking against global and US general and disease-prevalence data, we found a striking, pervasive European overrepresentation and underrepresentation of Asian and Latino individuals. Nearly 70% of HCA samples lacked ancestry annotation, and among annotated samples, Europeans were overrepresented 6-fold. PsychAD was nearly two-thirds European. HTAN tumors were 69% European, with several cancer types showing sex skews beyond expected incidence. These disparities highlight that current single-cell resources risk embedding inequities into AI foundational models, biomarker discovery, and therapeutic development. We contextualize these findings within the structural, economic, and regulatory spaces; survey the growing ecosystem of diversity-focused initiatives; and provide an actionable, field-specific checklist to help research teams design single-cell studies whose benefits extend equitably across populations.
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