About the Project
The PRECISION Human Pain Network is an NIH HEAL Initiative effort to create a unified framework for classifying, comparing, and annotating pain-related neuron types across species and experimental methods. By harmonizing cell type definitions from multiple research groups, the network enables:
- Cross-study comparison of sensory neuron subtypes as reported in each source publication
- Persistent Identifiers for putative types enable a stable manner to track harmonization
- Standardized nomenclature links PRECISION data to other consortia efforts
- Interactive visualization through NervoSensus for Cell Type Relationships and the PRECISION Dashboard to show transcriptomic profiles within clusters
- Comprehensive Open data of the molecular signatures, genes, cell types, and tissues that underlie human pain types, conditions, and disease for use by the scientific community
Data at a Glance
| Sources integrated | 6 |
| Cell type entries | 153 |
| Species | human, mouse, macaque, guinea pig |
| Methods | scRNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics, electrophysiology, ATAC-seq, morphological analysis |
Sources
Literature sources currently integrated into the PRECISION cell type framework.
| Title | Authors | Year | Species | Cell Types | Methods |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harmonized cross-species cell atlases of trigeminal and dorsal root ganglia | Bhuiyan et al. | 2024 | human, mouse, macaque, guinea pig | 54 | scRNA-seq |
| A Reference Atlas of the Human Dorsal Root Ganglion | Bhuiyan et al. | 2025 | human | 32 | scRNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics |
| Spatial transcriptomics of dorsal root ganglia identifies molecular signatures of human nociceptors | Tavares-Ferreira et al. | 2022 | human | 12 | spatial transcriptomics, scRNA-seq, electrophysiology |
| Leveraging deep single-soma RNA sequencing to explore the neural basis of human somatosensation | Yu et al. | 2024 | human | 16 | scRNA-seq |
| Spatial organization, chromatin accessibility and gene-regulatory programs defining mouse sensory neurons | Krauter et al. | 2025 | mouse | 22 | scRNA-seq, ATAC-seq |
| A mouse DRG genetic toolkit reveals morphological and physiological diversity of somatosensory neuron subtypes | Qi et al. | 2024 | mouse | 17 | scRNA-seq, electrophysiology, morphological analysis |
Bhuiyan et al., 2024
Harmonized cross-species cell atlases of trigeminal and dorsal root ganglia
| DOI | 10.1126/sciadv.adj9173 |
| Species | human, mouse, macaque, guinea pig |
| Cell types | 54 |
| Methods | scRNA-seq |
| Anatomical focus | dorsal root ganglia, trigeminal ganglion |
Bhuiyan et al., 2025
A Reference Atlas of the Human Dorsal Root Ganglion
| DOI | 10.1101/2025.11.05.686654 |
| Species | human |
| Cell types | 32 |
| Methods | scRNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics |
| Sex | female, male |
| Age range | 0.17-86 years |
| Anatomical focus | dorsal root ganglia (cervical, thoracic, lumbar) |
| DRG regions | C2, T2, T3, T7, T8, T9, T10, T11, T12, L1, L2, L3, L4, L5 |
Tavares-Ferreira et al., 2022
Spatial transcriptomics of dorsal root ganglia identifies molecular signatures of human nociceptors
| DOI | 10.1126/scitranslmed.abj8186 |
| Species | human |
| Cell types | 12 |
| Methods | spatial transcriptomics, scRNA-seq, electrophysiology |
| Sex | female, male |
| Age range | 24-65 years |
| Anatomical focus | dorsal root ganglia (lumbar) |
Yu et al., 2024
Leveraging deep single-soma RNA sequencing to explore the neural basis of human somatosensation
| DOI | 10.1038/s41593-024-01794-1 |
| Species | human |
| Cell types | 16 |
| Methods | scRNA-seq |
Krauter et al., 2025
Spatial organization, chromatin accessibility and gene-regulatory programs defining mouse sensory neurons
| DOI | 10.1038/s42003-025-08315-1 |
| Species | mouse |
| Cell types | 22 |
| Methods | scRNA-seq, ATAC-seq |
Qi et al., 2024
A mouse DRG genetic toolkit reveals morphological and physiological diversity of somatosensory neuron subtypes
| DOI | 10.1016/j.cell.2024.02.006 |
| Species | mouse |
| Cell types | 17 |
| Methods | scRNA-seq, electrophysiology, morphological analysis |
Tools & Resources
Cell Types Knowledge Base
Browse the full PRECISION cell type ontology — nomenclature, markers, and anatomical annotations anchored by persistent identifiers.
Browse Cell TypesNervoSensus
Interactive cell type visualization tool. Explore cluster relationships, lineage views, and cross-source comparisons for peripheral sensory neurons.
Launch NervoSensusPRECISION Dashboard
Explore gene expression across PRECISION cell types on the SPARC Portal. Search by gene symbol to see expression patterns.
Open DashboardPRECISION Datasets
Access all publicly available PRECISION-related datasets deposited on the SPARC Portal.
View Datasets