High-throughput proteomics
Decrypting the human genome has been one of the grandest undertakings in all of modern biology and medicine. We know today that the wealth of information contained in the 3 billion chemical base pairs and some 23,000 genes making up the human DNA blueprint provides only first part of the picture. The key role of the genome is to provide the cell with an instruction set for building its complement of proteins. Proteins constitute both the operating machinery and the bricks and mortar of biology. The next major advance in molecular biology and disease diagnosis will come with a detailed understanding of the universe of proteins—the proteome.
Scientists estimate that the human body may contain up to 2 million proteins. These chains of amino acids—products of our genes—are functional molecules essential to human health and disease. Most human disease results from protein malfunction and virtually all medicines either act on proteins or are proteins themselves. Developing new research tools that can rapidly associate alterations in the protein milieu with various illnesses, is central to the advancement of personalized medicine.
To understand how a limited complement of genes can give rise to the vast array of functional proteins—source of nearly inexhaustible subtlety and human variation—researchers at the Piper Center employ an arsenal of high-throughput technologies. Current research is deepening our understanding of protein behavior, uncovering key environmental factors, exploring the roles of proteins in disease and drug response, and assisting in biomarker discovery.
Protein biomarkers are tell-tale signs appearing in the blood that indicate various disease and clinical states. They are of enormous value to medicine, as they allow for earlier diagnosis of illness as well as determining which therapies are likely to work for an individual patient, thereby reducing treatment cost and significantly improving patient prognoses.
Vast numbers of proteins are now being examined with unprecedented accuracy and speed. At the Virginia G. Piper Center for Personalized Diagnostics, under the directorship of Dr. Joshua LaBaer, global proteomic analysis and protein functional profiling are integral to unlocking protein secrets. In addition to providing new opportunities for early diagnosis and therapy, these investigations are shedding new light on the foundations of disease biology at the molecular level. Further, analysis of the character of particular protein biomarkers will assist in the formulation of new drugs to interfere with the activity of these disease-related proteins—another crucial benefit of personalized medicine.
