ADA Science and Research Institute Awarded $3.5M to Map Cells in Pediatric Respiratory Tissues

The American Dental Association (ADA) Science and Research Institute, together with other U.S. and international collaborators, has been awarded a three-year, $3.5 million grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, to map cells in pediatric respiratory tissues of the nose, mouth, and airways from birth through adolescence.

This funding is part of a grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to support researchers and pediatricians as they seek to better understand, prevent and treat childhood diseases. The research funded by these grants will generate healthy, single-cell reference data from pediatric tissue samples for the Human Cell Atlas, an international consortium that aims to map every cell type in the human body, according to the ADA. 

Kevin Byrd, DDS, PhD, manager of oral and craniofacial research at the ADA Science and Research Institute and one of the principal investigators says, “This newly assembled team of partners across the globe will work collaboratively to understand the common and unique cell types and their signatures that support the development of the airways in healthy children from Malawi, Vietnam, India, Germany, Brazil, and the U.S. This atlas of the ‘inhalation interface’ will be curated and open to the entire scientific and clinical community to accelerate our understanding of disease progression and guide therapeutic strategies in children.”