Richard Harris, PhD, Samueli Endowed Chair in Integrative Health and School of Medicine professor, has been working this year as co-principal investigator on the Topological Atlas and Repository for Acupoint Research (TARA) project, which has the potential to enhance the biological understanding of acupoints and support their integration into clinical practice.
TARA is funded by a five-year U24 grant totaling $5.8 million from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). This open-access repository will feature a searchable database of human and rodent acupoints used in acupuncture research, offering visual displays of these points within the body. The database will include detailed characteristics of acupoints along with data supporting the physiological responses to their stimulation.
“Hopefully it will allow the integration of acupuncture into the global, more conventional mainstream,” Harris said.
Harris and the TARA team have been working on the four cores of the project, preparing to have a beta version of the database ready within the next year. The Ontology Core, led by Maryann Martone, PhD, of UC San Diego, is creating a detailed ontology for acupoints, using both Western biomedical and Traditional East Asian Medicine (TEAM) terms. This comprehensive naming system ensures that all data is precisely categorized and easily accessible.
The Atlas Core, led by Peter Hunter, FRS, of the University of Aukland, and Vitaly Napadow, PhD, LAc, of Mass General Brigham, is developing a 3D visual atlas of the body. This atlas will allow users to click on each acupoint location, displaying the surrounding structures using MRI images. The aim is to provide a detailed, visual representation of where needles are inserted during acupuncture and the specific tissues in and around the active points.
The Data Core, led by Karl Helmer, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, i s developing the computing infrastructure (database and web portal, with storage) for the open-access repository of anatomical and physiological data.
Harris leads the TEAM Core, ensuring that all project outputs remain relevant to TEAM practices. This focuses on integrating the different aspects of the project and maintaining the authenticity and applicability of the research to acupuncture practices.
The visual atlas is a critical aspect for TARA. Harris is particularly excited about the potential to show the fascia, the thin connective tissue that surrounds, essentially, everything inside the body. Researchers have suggested that common acupuncture points may lie in the fascia layer. However, typical MRI techniques do not capture fascia well due to its unique properties.
The TARA Atlas Core has been working diligently to develop imaging techniques to visualize fascia accurately, enabling researchers to study its role in acupuncture more effectively. By providing detailed images and data on fascia, TARA could reveal whether certain acupoints have distinct fascial structures, enhancing knowledge of how acupuncture affects the body. This deeper understanding could help integrate acupuncture into mainstream medical research and practice.
Throughout the past year, Harris and his team have also engaged with the acupuncture community, gathering feedback from nearly 200 practitioners to align TARA’s functionality with user needs. Dr. Harris has also presented TARA at two international conferences in 2024: the Society for Acupuncture Research in Hong Kong and the International Congress on Integrative Health and Medicine in Cleveland Ohio. At these meetings, there was an enthusiastic response and valuable input pertaining to the TARA project.
Harris envisions TARA becoming an indispensable tool for both researchers and clinicians, bridging the gap between acupuncture and mainstream medical research.
“For clinicians, we’re hoping that we’ll have an active trials database where people can just type in, for example, ‘low back pain.’ And TARA would bring up all the studies of acupuncture for low back pain, and also the points that were used in these studies in addition to efficacy data,” Harris said.
By integrating advanced imaging techniques and detailed anatomical descriptions, TARA can enhance our understanding of acupoints and their physiological significance – ultimately facilitating the integration of acupuncture into global healthcare practices.
A beta version of TARA is expected to be ready within the next year.
“My hope is that 10 years from now, TARA will be self-sustainable and will bridge acupuncture research with the larger medical community,” Harris said.
