Researchers produce the first draft cell atlas of the small intestine

The lining or epithelium of the gut is one of the body's most diverse and dynamic tissues, an ecosystem of cells that acts as one of the body's main interfaces with the outside world. To better understand this complex tissues and its functions—and the diseases that affect it—a multicenter team led by researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital has produced a high-resolution, gene expression-based census of the cells constituting the lining of the small intestine, using more than 53,000 individual cells from the mouse gut or gut organoid models.