Researchers in Sweden are compiling a remarkable ‘atlas’ that pinpoints
the location of thousands of individual proteins in the body’s tissues
and cells which will give scientists important insights into the
function of different proteins and how changes in the distribution of
proteins could be reflected in diseases such as cancer. Professor
Mathias Uhlén of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, who is
leading the project, said, "We are trying to map the building blocks of
life."
The project is hugely ambitious, relying on the selective
identification and mapping of thousands of proteins, many of whose
function is not yet known, and has required the development of a
massive infrastructure to enable the proteins to be identified in a
realistic period of time.
Uhlén was describing the human protein atlas at the European Science
Foundation’s 3rd Functional Genomics Conference in Innsbruck, Austria,
on 1-4 October. Functional genomics describes the way in which genes
and their products, proteins, interact together in complex networks in
living cells. If these interactions are abnormal, diseases can result.
The Innsbruck meeting brought together more than 450 scientists from
across Europe to discuss recent advances in the role of functional
genomics in disease.
The protein atlas team first uses the human genome – the sequence of
all the 20000 or so genes in human cells – to encode individual
proteins. They then develop ‘antibodies’ – protein molecules that
recognise specific targets – against each of these proteins. The
antibody that recognises a given protein is then labelled 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.
"To do this systematically requires a lot of automation and
robotics," Uhlén said. "We have six software engineers writing codes
just to keep track on 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.
"To get an idea of how far we have come, in our first year we
produced on antibody," said Uhlén. "This year we are hoping we can make
3000." The programme was launched in 2003, and with sufficient funding
the first full version of the atlas could be available by 2014, Uhlén
believes.
The team has so far mapped the location of around 5000 proteins in
human cells and tissues. The researchers are also investigating whether
certain common cancers – colon, prostate, lung and breast – have
different protein profiles to normal tissue. In this way new
‘biomarkers’ could be identified – molecules which indicate that a
tissue or cell is in a diseased state, which could alert doctors to the
early stages of a disease.
Source : European Science Foundation. October 2008.