What is Proteomics?
The Center
Rationale of the Proteome Center
Technology and Application Development
Post Doctoral Fellow Program
Definitions
Rationale of the Proteome Center
Genes are being sequenced at steadily accelerating rates. The number of organisms whose genomes have already been sequenced
or which will be completed in the next couple of years is continuing to accelerate. It has been estimated that the genomes of at least
100 organisms will be sequenced by the end of 2000. The shear volume of available sequence data is staggering and has given
bioinformatics a dramatically increased importance in biomedical research.
Genome projects may be viewed as the ultimate in reductionism, reducing an entire organism to symbols on a computer screen.
Yet the genome sequence of an organism is only structure, and then only in a limited chemical sense. We can look at a new genome
sequence and by homology we know it is the genome of, say, a yeast or an ungulate or a primate, but we cannot say exactly what the
organism itself really looks like, much less how it functions or behaves.
For example, at the DNA sequence level, chimpanzees appear to be less than 1% different from humans. The difference in DNA
sequences between any two humans can be as high as 0.5% and between men and women, as high as 1% (Y chromosome). Yet there are clearly
dramatic differences between humans and chimpanzees. We cannot reliably predict form and function from genome structure. In
order to take advantage of the genome sequence data, we need to understand the cryptic information in those genes and understand
the function of the genome as a whole.
This is not meant to trivialize the depth of information present in DNA sequence, only to underscore that it is our limited depth of
knowledge which hobbles our ability to fully interpret gene sequences. The codons, splice junctions, and control sequences (promoters,
enhancers, etc.) represent direct information that can be interpreted now, either partially or in full. There is a range of complex, higher
order, cryptic information of which we are aware, but we cannot yet interpret from DNA sequence alone. There has been the mistaken
perception that knowing the entire genome sequence of an organism is all we need to understand the organism. But gene sequences alone
do not allow us to understand the form of the organism, its physiology, behavior, or even its biochemistry.
So how do we bridge the gap from genome structure to form, function, and behavior? We must develop new technologies that allow us
to elucidate gene function rapidly so we can more effectively reap the benefits of the genome projects for human health. We must also
have new ways to reintegrate these component parts into an understanding of the whole organism. The mission of this Center is to
provide the technologies needed for linking gene structure to function, leading to new ways to understand complex systems.
