The Human Tumor Atlas Network (HTAN), part of the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Moonshot initiative, was initiated in 2018 with the goal of generating three-dimensional molecular and cellular tumor atlases of key transitions in cancer. Dana Pe’er and Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue co-lead a center at MSK that focuses on understanding the transition from local to metastatic disease in pancreatic and lung cancers. It is one of only 11 HTAN centers across the country. MSK’s HTAN center relies on SAIL to develop novel protocols for the handling, banking, and single-cell sequencing of challenging clinical tissue that’s generated from biopsies and resections, as well as rapid autopsy tissue from the Last Wish Program. A major goal of our center is to identify shared bottlenecks that tumor cells must overcome to colonize distant tissues. We hope this will help us to identify therapeutic opportunities for blocking metastatic routes. SAIL has already generated substantial data from biospecimen samples, with a special emphasis on metastasis to the brain.