Submitted by aml95 on Thu, 28/05/2026 - 00:00
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have constructed the most comprehensive map to date of where hormones are made and where they work – the Hormone Cell Atlas.
Hormones are chemical messengers that are secreted into the blood and act on distant sites in the body to orchestrate fundamental processes, including growth, reproduction and metabolism.
Conditions in which hormone production or hormone action are impaired, such as type 1 and 2 diabetes, obesity and thyroid disease, affect millions of people globally, and many lack cures or effective, long-term treatments.
To date, most hormone research has focused on individual hormones, receptors, target organs or diseases. In a new study published in Science, two Cambridge research teams led by Professor Sadaf Farooqi from the IMS-MRL and Professor Sarah Teichmann (co-founder and co-chair of the international Human Cell Atlas project, Cambridge Stem Cell Institute) systematically mapped the production and action of over 150 hormones across all the cells in 47 human tissues, to create the human Hormone Cell Atlas.
This collaborative work brought together two internationally recognised research groups in Cambridge: the Farooqi team, leaders in endocrine and metabolic disease (www.goos.org.uk), and the Teichmann lab (www.teichlab.org), pioneers in using single-cell technologies to understand human tissue architecture and function at cellular resolution towards the Human Cell Atlas project.
To build the hormone cell atlas, the teams harnessed data from single-cell RNA sequencing, a technology that profiles the expression of every gene in the genome across thousands of individual cells simultaneously. By integrating over 100 such datasets from 47 healthy adult tissues, they constructed an atlas of 14 million cells and nuclei across the human body. Next, by assembling a unique, expert-curated database of over 150 hormones and their receptors, then developing a custom analytical tool (hormone2cell), they predicted which cells produce specific hormones and which cells these hormones act on, across the whole body. By capturing cells that both produce and respond to hormones, the authors could also map long-range hormone axes and feedback loops throughout the body.
One of the most striking findings of this study was that hormone signalling extends far beyond the classical glands (as reported in the textbooks), such as the pancreas, thyroid, adrenal gland and pituitary. Numerous tissues not traditionally associated with endocrine function, including the immune system, adipose tissue, blood vessels and the heart, appear to play an active and previously underappreciated role in hormone signalling.
The Hormone Cell Atlas allows researchers and clinicians to explore the human endocrine system in unprecedented detail. For example, by profiling the hormone producing capabilities of rare cells across multiple tissues, the team made another unexpected discovery: the gene for secretin, a classical gut hormone known for its role in digestion, was expressed in plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), a rare immune cell type that forms part of the innate antiviral immune response. Secretin gene expression increased following pDC activation (mimicking a viral infection), suggesting a role for secretin in the body’s response to infection, and pointing to uncovering unexpected links between hormones and immune function.
The Hormone Cell Atlas also supports research into the effects of hormone-based therapies. In this study, the authors investigated convergent hormone signalling—where more than one receptor is expressed on a single cell type. Specifically, they profiled expression of three gut hormone receptors that are targets of drugs now widely used to treat obesity (Ozempic, Mounjaro): GLP1R (glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor), GIPR (gastric inhibitory polypeptide receptor) and GCGR (glucagon receptor). They found that GLP1R and GIPR were co-expressed in cardiomyocytes and pacemaker cells in the heart, suggesting a potential explanation for the cardiac effects of drugs that act via these receptors.
Adipose (fat) tissue dysfunction plays a key role in obesity and its complications. To explore this further, the authors integrated nine human adipocyte datasets to generate an Adipocyte Cell Atlas, revealing dynamic endocrine programmes during adipocyte differentiation, distinct endocrine functions across different adipose tissue depots, and characteristic patterns in people with obesity.
Finally, the authors mapped the expression of over 400 genes whose disruption causes rare monogenic endocrine and metabolic disorders, predicting sites of expression including in tissues not currently linked to those disorders. Many of these disorders are poorly understood with limited treatment options. This resource therefore provides an invaluable opportunity to advance understanding of rare disease.
By combining cellular resolution with a system-level view, the Hormone Cell Atlas exposes the full breadth and complexity of the human endocrine system. As an open and extensible resource, it offers a powerful new framework for exploring hormone action, serving as an invaluable reference for mechanistic and physiological studies of endocrine disease and informing a rational approach to the identification and validation of therapeutic targets.
“Hormones are critical to our health and wellbeing, yet millions of people are affected by endocrine and metabolic conditions in which hormone action is disrupted. The Hormone Cell Atlas provides a new approach to endocrine research, capturing the full breadth of hormone action across the human body at the resolution of cells and cell types. We hope this unique and adaptable resource will support researchers and clinicians worldwide working to deliver transformative insights into endocrine disease and accelerate drug discovery.”
Dr Isabel Huang-Doran (co-first author from the IMS-MRL)
“What excites me most is that the Hormone Cell Atlas lets us trace, at cellular resolution, where hormonal signals may come from and where they may act. It recovers classical endocrine pathways, while also revealing unexpected cellular conversations, providing a new systems-level framework for understanding endocrine regulation in health and disease.”
Dr Lijiang Fei (co-first author from the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute)
“We anticipate that this exciting collaboration paves the way for many further studies which will advance our understanding of how hormones control every part of our metabolism, knowledge that is vital if we are to prevent and treat metabolic diseases and improve the lives of people living with these conditions”
Professor Sadaf Farooqi FMedSci FRS (joint lead author)
“This is a key advance in understanding the regulation of individual human cell types across the human body by hormones. It is a further example of how the Human Cell Atlas project is changing medicine in this century.”
Professor Sarah Teichmann FMedSci FRS (joint lead author, co-founder and co-lead of the Human Cell Atlas international consortium)
Funders:
Wellcome Trust, URKI Medial Research Council, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Foundation, Leducq Foundation, Bernard Wolfe Health Neuroscience Endowment, NIHR, CIFAR
Reference:
Lijiang Fei, Isabel Huang-Doran, Katherine Lawler, Yizhou Yu, Jan Patrick Pett, Kevin Mendez Acevedo, Dinesh Shah, Jaume Margalef-Rieres, Joseph S. Pohlman, Batuhan Cakir, Madelyn R. Moy, Robert G. Legg, Chuan Xu, Ken To, Duy Pham, Alexander V. Predeus, Ruth Hanssen, Tessa M. Cacciottolo, Rakesh K. Kapuge, Krzysztof Polanski, Amanda J. Oliver, Sarah A. Teichmann, I. Sadaf Farooqi. A Hormone Cell Atlas maps the human endocrine system at cellular resolution. Science 0,eaeb2672 DOI:10.1126/science.aeb2672
