Proteomics: Finding the key ingredients of disease
International collaboration between ۲ݮƵ, the ۲ݮƵ University Health Centre and HUPO cooks up the right recipe
The winner of the chilli cook-off, usually has a key secret
ingredient, which is hard to identify. Similarly, many diseases
have crucial proteins, which change the dynamics of cells from
benign to deadly. New findings from an international collaboration,
involving ۲ݮƵ University, the Research Institute of the ۲ݮƵ
University Health Centre (MUHC) and the Human Proteome Organisation
(HUPO) just made identifying these changes one step easier. Their
findings published in Nature Methods, show how to improve protein
analysis to tease out relevant potential disease-causing
molecules.
"Proteomics is the field that singles out the few significant
proteins from the hundreds that may be present in a diagnostic
sample," says co-author and recent new recruit of the Research
Institute of the MUHC and of ۲ݮƵ Unversity, Dr. Tommy Nilsson.
"It is important to associate the correct proteins with the correct
condition. This process is incredibly complex. The aim of our study
was to benchmark current analysis techniques worldwide and to
identify potential bottlenecks."
Putting them to the test
Twenty-seven labs worldwide were sent a standard sample of proteins
to analyse using their usual techniques. Only seven of the 27
participating labs were accurate in detecting all the proteins and
in the more challenging part of the study, only one lab succeeded.
However, further analysis of their raw data, showed that all the
proteins had been initially detected by all the labs involved but
they had been rejected in later analyses.
"Our centralized analysis showed us the problems encountered while
conducting this type of testing," says Dr. John Bergeron, senior
author from ۲ݮƵ University and HUPO. "We found that a major
contributing factor to erroneous reporting is at the database
level. We expect once databases and search engines improve, the
accuracy of reporting will as well."
Importance of proteomics
The goal of proteomics is to characterise all the proteins that are
encoded from human DNA, similar to how all genes were identified as
a result of the Human Genome Project. It is expected that
proteomics will accelerate the identification of cause of many
human diseases and that improved diagnosis and therapy will emerge
using proteomic techniques.
"The new technology described in our paper will potentially enable
clinicians to determine the causes of disease," adds Dr.
Bergeron.
Funding
This study was funded through grants the Canadian Institutes of
Health Research, Genome Quebec and ۲ݮƵ University.
Dr Tommy Nilsson
Dr Tommy Nilsson is the Director of Proteomics and Systems Medicine
at the Research Institute of the MUHC and Professor of
Endocrinology and metabolism at ۲ݮƵ University.
Dr John Bergeron
Dr John Bergeron is the ۲ݮƵ chair of the Anatomy and Cell
Biology Department, and a member of HUPO.
Partners
“HUPO test sample study reveals common problems in mass spectrometry-based proteomics”, was authored by Alexander Bell (۲ݮƵ University), Eric Deutsch (Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle), Catherine Au (۲ݮƵ University), Robert Kearney (۲ݮƵ University), Ron Beavis (UBC, Vancouver), Salvatore Sechi (NIDDK (NIH)), Tommy Nilsson (Research Institute, MUHC), John Bergeron (۲ݮƵ University) and the HUPO Test Sample Working Group.
You can find the press release published by the HUPO on the same
topic at this address:
The Research Institute of the ۲ݮƵ University Health
Centre (RI MUHC) is a world-renowned biomedical and
health-care hospital research centre. Located in Montreal, Quebec,
the institute is the research arm of the MUHC, the university
health center affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine at ۲ݮƵ
University. The institute supports over 600 researchers, nearly
1200 graduate and post-doctoral students and operates more than 300
laboratories devoted to a broad spectrum of fundamental and
clinical research. The Research Institute operates at the forefront
of knowledge, innovation and technology and is inextricably linked
to the clinical programs of the MUHC, ensuring that patients
benefit directly from the latest research-based knowledge.
The Research Institute of the MUHC is supported in part by the
Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec.
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mark.shainblum [at] mcgill.ca