Mapping Human Proteins Will Help Identify Diseases

Swedish scientists are creating an atlas of the proteins in the human's body tissues and cells. The atlas should enlighten scientists about the function of the proteins and how changes in their distribution could be reflected in certain diseases such as cancer.

The protein atlas team uses the human genome to encode individual proteins. Antibodies are then developed against each of these proteins. The antibody that recognizes a given protein is then labeled with a marker to render it visible under a microscope and is exposed to samples of different tissues and cells. The antibody binds to the proteins and in this way, the location of the protein can be detected.

Functional genomics describes the way in which genes and their products, proteins, interact together in complex networks in living cells. Professor Mathias Uhlén of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH; Stockholm, Sweden), who is leading the project, described the human protein atlas at the European Science Foundation's Third Functional Genomics Conference in Innsbruck, Austria, on October 1-4, 2008.

The protein atlas project is a very ambitious. "To do this systematically requires a lot of automation and robotics," Professor Uhlén said. "We have six software engineers writing codes just to keep track of the samples. The project is generating 400 gigabytes of data every day." There is a 100-strong team working on the project, with a site due to be set up soon in India, and with antibody-producing sites in Korea and China.

The team has so far mapped the location of around 5000 proteins in human cells and tissues. The scientists are investigating whether certain common cancers--colon, prostate, lung, and breast--have different protein profiles to normal tissue. In this way, new biomarkers can be identified, which could alert doctors to the early stages of a disease.

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Royal Institute of Technology