| Abstract |
The completion of the Human Genome Project, which set out to read the entire DNA 'blueprint' for a human being, was one of the greatest scientific achievements of recent times. However, there is a limit to what the genome itself can tell us about how a human being grows and functions, as it does not change according to time or tissue type, and varies little between individuals of the same species. To get a real insight into biology and disease mechanisms, we need to look at the proteins expressed from the genome, as these are the molecules that actually do the work in the body. As the protein complement of a cell varies tremendously over time, between tissue types, and in response to environmental conditions, developing methods to identify which proteins are present, and in what quantities, in a particular sample is crucial. Proteomics is the name given to the science of identifying all the proteins within a sample. This is typically achieved by separating the proteins, breaking them up into smaller peptides, and analysing them with mass spectrometry (MS) to generate a characteristic spectrum which can be matched to a sequence known to exist in the genome. Methods to quantify the amount of proteins in a sample, either in relation to other samples or absolutely, have been developed based around the same technology. In previous projects we have developed computational methods that help to identify proteins and to quantitate them. Respectively, these are the Genome Annotating Proteomic Pipeline (GAPP) and i-Tracker. There are however a number of quantitation methods available and more are being developed, but there is currently no easy way of both identifying and quantifying proteins within the same package for a number of different quantitation methods. Nor is there an easy way to modify or add methods to a system to suit techniques specific to one laboratory. The aim of this proposal is to provide a system that meets this need and thereby to facilitate performing quantitative proteomics experiments and also the dissemination of novel methods throughout the community. |
