diff --git a/docs/api/datasets.md b/docs/api/datasets.md
index 7bf6d5a61..d0c43b56c 100644
--- a/docs/api/datasets.md
+++ b/docs/api/datasets.md
@@ -7,5 +7,6 @@ Convenience small datasets
 
 .. autofunction:: blobs
 .. autofunction:: blobs_annotating_element
+.. autofunction:: cells
 .. autofunction:: raccoon
 ```
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 03181eadb..3fe577a50 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ dependencies = [
     "spatial_image>=1.2.3",
     "scikit-image",
     "scipy!=1.17.0",
+    "scverse-misc[datasets]>=0.1.0",
     "typing_extensions>=4.8.0",
     "universal_pathlib>=0.2.6",
     "xarray>=2024.10.0",
diff --git a/src/spatialdata/datasets.py b/src/spatialdata/datasets.py
index 37f529c72..8b0233f68 100644
--- a/src/spatialdata/datasets.py
+++ b/src/spatialdata/datasets.py
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
 )
 from spatialdata.transformations import Identity
 
-__all__ = ["blobs", "raccoon"]
+__all__ = ["blobs", "cells", "raccoon"]
 
 
 def blobs(
@@ -79,6 +79,38 @@ def raccoon() -> SpatialData:
     return RaccoonDataset().raccoon()
 
 
+def cells(path: str | None = None) -> SpatialData:
+    """
+    Cells dataset.
+
+    Download the ``cells`` example dataset and load it as a :class:`~spatialdata.SpatialData`
+    object. The download is hash-verified and cached, so repeated calls reuse the local copy
+    instead of downloading again.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    path
+        Directory in which to cache the downloaded data. If `None`, the default OS cache
+        location is used (:func:`pooch.os_cache` for ``"spatialdata"``).
+
+    Returns
+    -------
+    SpatialData object with the cells dataset.
+    """
+    import importlib.resources
+    from pathlib import Path
+
+    import pooch
+    from scverse_misc.datasets import fetch, parse_registry
+
+    cache_dir = Path(path) if path is not None else Path(pooch.os_cache("spatialdata"))
+    registry = importlib.resources.files("spatialdata").joinpath("datasets.yaml")
+    with importlib.resources.as_file(registry) as registry_path:
+        base_url, datasets = parse_registry(registry_path)
+    sdata: SpatialData = fetch(datasets["cells"], cache_dir, base_url=base_url)
+    return sdata
+
+
 class RaccoonDataset:
     """Raccoon dataset."""
 
diff --git a/src/spatialdata/datasets.yaml b/src/spatialdata/datasets.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9f5d235a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/spatialdata/datasets.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# Registry of downloadable example datasets for ``spatialdata.datasets``.
+#
+# Parsed by ``scverse_misc.datasets.parse_registry`` and fetched (downloaded,
+# hash-verified, cached and loaded) via ``scverse_misc.datasets.fetch``.
+#
+#   type: spatialdata  ->  a .zip that extracts to a single .zarr store
+base_url: https://exampledata.scverse.org/spatialdata/
+datasets:
+    cells:
+        type: spatialdata
+        doc_header: Cells dataset as a SpatialData object.
+        files:
+            - name: cells.zip
+              s3_key: cells.zip
+              sha256: dc9613cb9e16fd2cd8d83f3a9586eeda4af5ba8ba366f1066efb51305820c5fb
diff --git a/tests/datasets/test_datasets.py b/tests/datasets/test_datasets.py
index 2237e253c..10337915f 100644
--- a/tests/datasets/test_datasets.py
+++ b/tests/datasets/test_datasets.py
@@ -1,6 +1,11 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
-from spatialdata.datasets import blobs, raccoon
+import importlib.resources
+
+import pytest
+
+from spatialdata import SpatialData
+from spatialdata.datasets import blobs, cells, raccoon
 
 
 def test_datasets() -> None:
@@ -26,3 +31,26 @@ def test_datasets() -> None:
     assert sdata_raccoon.images["raccoon"].shape == (3, 768, 1024)
     assert sdata_raccoon.labels["segmentation"].shape == (768, 1024)
     _ = str(sdata_raccoon)
+
+
+def test_cells_registry() -> None:
+    # Network-free: the shipped registry parses and exposes the cells dataset.
+    from scverse_misc.datasets import parse_registry
+
+    registry = importlib.resources.files("spatialdata").joinpath("datasets.yaml")
+    with importlib.resources.as_file(registry) as registry_path:
+        base_url, datasets = parse_registry(registry_path)
+
+    assert base_url == "https://exampledata.scverse.org/spatialdata/"
+    entry = datasets["cells"]
+    assert entry.type == "spatialdata"
+    file = entry.file(name="cells.zip")
+    assert file.sha256 == "dc9613cb9e16fd2cd8d83f3a9586eeda4af5ba8ba366f1066efb51305820c5fb"
+    assert file.resolve_url(base_url) == "https://exampledata.scverse.org/spatialdata/cells.zip"
+
+
+@pytest.mark.slow
+def test_cells_download(tmp_path) -> None:
+    # Downloads ~3 MB from the scverse example data bucket; opt out with `-m "not slow"`.
+    sdata = cells(path=str(tmp_path))
+    assert isinstance(sdata, SpatialData)