Background: Meaningful exchange of microarray data is currently difficult because it is rare that published data provide sufficient information depth or are even in the same format from one publication to another. Only when data can be easily exchanged will the entire biological community be able to derive the full benefit from such microarray studies.

Expression Profiler (EP, http://www.ebi.ac.uk/expressionprofiler) is a web-based platform for microarray gene expression and other functional genomics-related data analysis. The new architecture, Expression Profiler: next generation (EP:NG), modularizes the original design and allows individual analysis-task-related components to be developed by different groups and yet still seamlessly to work together and share the same user interface look and feel. Data analysis components for gene expression data preprocessing, missing value imputation, filtering, clustering methods, visualization, significant gene finding, between group analysis and other statistical components are available from the EBI (European Bioinformatics Institute) web site. The web-based design of Expression Profiler supports data sharing and collaborative analysis in a secure environment. Developed tools are integrated with the microarray gene expression database ArrayExpress and form the exploratory analytical front-end to those data. EP:NG is an open-source project, encouraging broad distribution and further extensions from the scientific community.

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The Human Cell Atlas (HCA) consortium aims to establish an atlas of all organs in the healthy human body at single-cell resolution to increase our understanding of basic biological processes that govern development, physiology and anatomy, and to accelerate diagnosis and treatment of disease. The lung biological network of the HCA aims to generate the Human Lung Cell Atlas as a reference for the cellular repertoire, molecular cell states and phenotypes, and the cell–cell interactions that characterise normal lung homeostasis in healthy lung tissue. Such a reference atlas of the healthy human lung will facilitate mapping the changes in the cellular landscape in disease. The discovAIR project is one of six pilot actions for the HCA funded by the European Commission in the context of the H2020 framework program. DiscovAIR aims to establish the first draft of an integrated Human Lung Cell Atlas, combining single-cell transcriptional and epigenetic profiling with spatially resolving techniques on matched tissue samples, as well as including a number of chronic and infectious diseases of the lung. The integrated Lung Cell Atlas will be available as a resource for the wider respiratory community, including basic and translational scientists, clinical medicine, and the private sector, as well as for patients with lung disease and the interested lay public. We anticipate that the Lung Cell Atlas will be the founding stone for a more detailed understanding of the pathogenesis of lung diseases, guiding the design of novel diagnostics and preventive or curative interventions.