After the completion of the human genome in 2001, another major milestone was reached with the launch of the Cell Atlas at the 2016 American Society of Cell Biology Meeting in San Francisco. An open-access interactive database with unparalleled high-resolution images, the Cell Atlas visualizes for the first time the location of more than 12,000 proteins in cells—opening the way for “spatial proteomics”, an exciting new discipline which is expected to lead to a fundamental expansion in our understanding of human health and disease.