Proteomics

FierceBiotech, our free daily email newsletter, covers proteomics and proteomics research, along with other key biotech industry topics.

Proteomics is the study of proteins that are expressed in a cell. The field attempts to catalog and characterize proteins derived from genetic code, compare variations in their expression levels under different conditions, study their interactions, and identify their functional role. Understanding of these proteins will enable scientist to make even more medical breakthroughs.

With the advent of high-throughput screening, proteomics is proving accurate and comprehensive data about very complex systems. The nature of proteins makes proteomics a more challenging endeavor than genomics, which is the study of DNA. The sheer number of proteins in the human body -- estimated at half a million, compared to 33,000 genes -- only partially accounts for this. The structure of proteins also contributes to the difficulty scientists face in developing proteomics-based applications. For instance, proteins have 20 building blocks, while DNA is composed of only four. What’s more, the structure of a protein changes, so that a single protein’s expression will be different depending on its location in an organism or its stage in the life cycle. The promise of proteomics is to understand how proteins interact with their environments and other molecules to produce states of wellness and disease.

The key technologies used in proteomics are mass spectrometry, x-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and gel electrophoresis. These tools allow scientists to look at thousands of protein interactions at the same time. This large-scale perspective has exponentially increased scientists’ understanding of biochemical processes. Many expect proteomics to revolutionize medicine in the decades to come.

Some of the leading companies engaged in proteomics research are:

• Amersham BiosciencesApplied Biosystems GroupBio-Rad LaboratoriesBruker DaltonicsCelera Genomics GroupCiphergenCuraGen Corp.Cytogen Corp.Myriad GeneticsOxford GlycoSciencesThermo Electron Corp.
• Waters Corp.

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