Single Cell Mapping of the Normal Breast of Ethnically Diverse Populations

Breast cancer occurrence, mutation patterns, response to therapy and outcomes differ in part by genetic ancestry. This network will perform single-cell mapping of the normal breast of ethnically diverse populations, including women of African, Latinx, Asian, Ashkenazi Jewish, and Native American descent. Including samples from women with diverse genetic ancestry can help reveal underlying biology that may contribute to health disparities.

This Network was awarded the CZI Seed Networks Incentive to Support Diversity for the Human Cell Atlas.

A new cryopreservation protocol specific to tissue-derived primary cell culture and single-cell sequencing was critical for this project. With this protocol, they collected, processed, sequenced, and made 11 breast tissue samples available on Chan Zuckerberg CELL by GENE Discover, leading to a new subclassification of estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer that will help provide a foundation to perform broader analysis of donors from multiple ethnic groups.