Researchers at University of Tsukuba have developed an evaluation method for measuring and classifying trace element concentrations in the semen and blood serum of male patients with subfertility. This method demonstrated that the pregnancy rate was highest in the group with low phosphorus and arsenic concentrations and high concentrations of other trace elements. Thus, this method could be a novel approach for evaluating subfertility that does not rely solely on sperm concentration and motility.

Today, Nature and other Nature Portfolio journals published a collection of more than 40 peer-reviewed papers marking a milestone toward researchers’ understanding of the human body in health and disease and the development of the first draft of the Human Cell Atlas (HCA). The Human Cell Atlas is an international community whose mission is to align groups engaged in creating comprehensive reference maps of all human cells — the fundamental units of life — as a basis for understanding human health and for diagnosing, monitoring, and treating disease. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is one of the HCA’s first and largest funders and provided support for a third of the papers included in this landmark release. The research papers cover an impressive variety of tissues, cell types, and organs, such as the brain, immune system, thymus, and endometrium. These papers advance scientific research by introducing novel methods and frameworks for improving the analysis, integration, and visualization of complex, high-dimensional single-cell and multi-omics datasets, enabling more accurate cell type identification, spatial mapping, and understanding of cellular heterogeneity across various biological contexts and diseases.