Children's Gene Expression Map: Toward Building the First Comprehensive Database

Children Missing from the Human Cell Atlas

At a presentation held at the University of Pennsylvania in 2017, an ambitious project called the “Human Cell Atlas” was introduced — an attempt to map every cell in the human body. When she heard about it, Deanne Taylor, director of bioinformatics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), was stunned. And she grew concerned.

The reason was simple. The project’s researchers had planned their study to include only adults. “At that moment, a little alarm went off,” Taylor recalls. “Never again.” Three years into her tenure at CHOP, Taylor had often been disappointed by the lack of investment in medical research focused on children. The prevailing view was that “children are just small adults.” But that is wrong.

Children’s cells differ from adult cells in how they express genes. The patterns by which genes are switched on and off, or their expression levels raised and lowered, are diverse. These variations can cause drugs that adults tolerate well to produce completely different — sometimes fatal — reactions in children. The 2017 presentation was a moment Taylor hadn’t realized she had been waiting for.

From Plan to Action:

Joining the Project and Publishing

Taylor turned her concerns into action. She joined the Human Cell Atlas volunteer team and wrote a chapter on children for the white paper outlining the project’s goals and plans. She also rallied a cross-institutional consortium of pediatric researchers and led a 2019 paper making the case for the need to study children. The paper was an attempt to draw more attention and funding to the field.

“We laid the groundwork,” Taylor says. “Why is there no healthy model for children’s development?” The paper also helped establish a pediatric section within the Human Cell Atlas. Today, the project includes efforts to map children’s cells.

dGTEx: A Database of Healthy Children’s Tissues

Taylor’s efforts produced direct results. In 2021, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded $38.5 million to the “Developmental Genotype-Tissue Expression Project (dGTEx).” The project’s goal is to establish the first comprehensive database of healthy pediatric tissues.

The project collects and preserves tissue samples from healthy children who died of other causes — cases in which parents consented to donate the body. It maps gene expression across all major organ systems. Taylor and her team are responsible for organizing and standardizing information related to tissue donation, including family histories and sample details.

The Importance of Data Collection and

Standardization

A separate set of groups performs the analysis of the samples themselves. All of the information is then combined to build a database. This provides a baseline for what gene expression looks like in children — a first step that enables research to advance knowledge about normal development, disease, drug efficacy, and other phenomena.

The dGTEx team will ultimately contribute its data to the Human Cell Atlas. Taylor’s primary responsibility is data collection and organization, but colleagues say she serves as the glue that holds the diverse research projects together. This is especially important for the Human Cell Atlas, which relies on a loose consortium of researchers.

The Role of Bioinformatics and Technical

Challenges

This endeavor highlights the importance of bioinformatics. Collecting, processing, and analyzing enormous amounts of gene expression data require advanced computational skills and data management methods. The standardization work carried out by Taylor’s team forms the foundation that will enable future researchers to use the data with confidence.

To ensure data consistency, everything must be recorded in detail, from sample collection methods and storage conditions to analysis protocols. Metadata on age, sex, and other factors is also essential for accurately capturing data variability across children’s developmental stages.

Editorial Opinion

Short-term impact: The dGTEx database has the potential to directly influence pediatric drug development and safety assessment in the coming years. As children’s specific gene expression patterns become clear, risk assessment for applying adult-approved drugs to children will become more precise, leading to a reduction in side effects. Clinical trial designs are likely to change as well.

Long-term perspective: On a 10-year scale, this data will become the foundation for realizing a pediatric version of personalized medicine. Time-series gene expression data will contribute to the early detection of developmental disorders and childhood cancers, as well as to the construction of predictive models. If the Human Cell Atlas is completed in its entirety, the cellular differences between children and adults will be systematically understood, and a medical model that considers the entire life course will be established.

A question from the editors: This development also raises new challenges in research ethics and data governance. Genetic information obtained from deceased children’s tissues is extremely sensitive. Parental consent has been obtained, but does it permit unrestricted use for any future research? And how can we ensure that this data is not diverted for commercial purposes? The balance between technological progress and personal data protection is being put to the test.

References

• “This scientist is helping build a missing map of childhood”, by Colleen de Bellefonds — MIT Technology Review AI, 2026-08-14T09:00:00.000Z (ARR)
• Source URL: https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/08/14/1141354/deanne-taylor-gene-expression-children/