BC: HUPO & PROTEOMICS
HUPO Announces Its Formation With the Creation of a Global Senior Advisory Group
LONDON, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- HUPO (The Human Proteome Organisation) is pleased to announce its launch today with the official formation of a global advisory council which brings together world leading expertise in the field of proteomics from both the academic and commercial sectors.
The reason for creating HUPO is to assist in increasing the awareness of this discipline of science across society, particularly with regard to the Human Proteome Project and to engender a broader understanding of the importance of proteomics and the opportunities it offers in the diagnosis, prognosis and therapy of disease. As a global body it will also have the objective of fostering international cooperation across the proteomics community and of promoting scientific research in an on-going manner around the world.
In addition to the scientific fraternity, governmental and financial constituencies will be a focus of HUPO. Both these communities will be important participants in ensuring that the substantial benefits that will result from proteomics are to be fully taken advantage of and capitalised on.
The advisory council has membership from across Europe, North America, the Far East and Japan and all the members are long-term contributors in the field of proteomics. Collectively this group of industry representatives undoubtedly represents the world's leading pool of expertise and knowledge in this arena. A list of council members is set out in the notes to editors. It is intended that the membership of the organisation will grow to incorporate various disciplines and funding agencies likely to impinge on proteomics in the future.
In addition, special task forces have been established in Europe and Japan to represent HUPO at a regional level. These are headed-up respectively by Prof. Julio Celis of the University of Aarhus and Prof. Akira Tsugita of the Science University of Tokyo.
An inaugural meeting of HUPO, which will be open to individuals interested in proteomics, will take place between April 2-4, 2001 in Virginia, USA. At this meeting the Human Proteome Project will be discussed, the detailed goals and objectives of HUPO will be considered and nominations sought for an inaugural president.
Proteomics is in essence the study of the function, regulation and expression of proteins in relation to the normal function of the cell and in the initiation or progression of a disease state. Proteomics is of particular importance as it is at the level of protein activity that most diseases are manifested. Consequently proteomics seeks to correlate directly the involvement of specific proteins and /or protein complexes in a given disease state.
The applications for proteomics are considerable:
* Specific proteins can be identified as highly accurate and sensitive
markers for disease at a very early stage of onset, thus ensuring their
utility in a diagnostic capacity.
* Proteins are important in the prognosis and in the monitoring of
therapeutic treatments, as the under or over expression of proteins
identified as being disease markers reduces with the improvement in a
disease condition. An important potential application here is in
increasing the speed and efficacy of clinical trials.
* A knowledge of protein expression patterns can provide insight into
potential toxic side-effects during drug screening and lead
optimisation.
* Proteins identified as being relevant in specific disease conditions
could be valid targets for therapeutic agents and thus could have an
important role in the development of new therapeutic treatments.
The near completion of the Human Genome Project has served to underline the importance of proteomics, as now that the human genome has been sequenced it is the understanding of proteins, the products of genes, in the context of disease genesis that is the next logical step to take. It is important to appreciate that whilst each gene produces one to several proteins, that these are in turn further modified by the cellular machinery which results in the proteome being a far more complex and dynamic entity than a genome. The protein products behave differently in different tissues and facilitate separate function from the same genome. Therefore whilst the genome is fundamental in providing the building blocks of Life, it is the proteins that do the work.
The importance of genomics is already well appreciated as is evidenced by the multi-billion dollar research effort it has spawned as well as numerous commercial success stories. HUPO recognises that proteomics now warrants a similar focus of investment and research effort and will work hard to assist in creating a similar environment for proteomics. HUPO will work in close collaboration with its equivalent in the genomics field, HUGO (Human Genome Organisation), as the two areas of science are very closely interlinked and complementary to one another. It is planned that many joint initiatives will be developed out of the existing HUGO infrastructure.
One of the founder members of HUPO, Prof. Ian Humphery-Smith of the University of Utrecht and Glaucus Proteomics said:
``Proteins are central to our understanding of cellular function and disease processes and without a concerted effort in proteomics the fruits of genomics will go unrealised. The necessity of proteomics cannot be avoided -- over the last year alone some very significant advances clearly vindicate this view.
``It is our aim at HUPO to facilitate a greater awareness of such developments, to further the understanding of proteomics and to encourage cooperation between the scientific, governmental and financial communities in order to realise the full benefits that proteomics can deliver.''
Prof. Sam Hanash from the University of Michigan, USA added:
``In the field of cancer research, proteomics will very likely fill an unmet need for reliable markers that allow early diagnosis to be made. Also proteomics will likely provide a multitude of novel targets for chemoprevention and therapy, as we understand the role of protein modifications and protein-protein interactions in diseases.''
Prof. Joachim Klose of Humboldt University in Germany, a researcher with over 25 years experience in the field of proteomics, noted:
``Proteome analysis will only contribute substantially to our understanding of complex human diseases like cancer and cardiovascular diseases, if a worldwide endeavour is initiated aiming at a systematic characterisation of all human proteins with regard to such fundamental biological properties as tissue cell organelle specificity, developmental stage and age specificity and genetic variability among human individuals.''
The following individuals are the inaugural council members of HUPO:
Ruedi Aebersold: raebersold@systemsbiology.org; The Institute for Systems
Biology; +1-206-732-1200
Amos Bairoch: amos.bairoch@isb-sib.ch; Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics;
+41-22-702-5860
Michael Dunn: Mike.Dunn@harefield.nthames.nhs.uk; National Heart and Lung
Institute, Imperial College School of Medicine; +44-1895-828-890
Julio Celis: jec@biokemi.au.dk; Univeristy of Aarhus; +45-8942-2887
Sam Hanash: shanash@umich.edu; University of Michigan; +1-734-763-9311
Denis Hochstrasser: Denis.Hochstrasser@dim.hcuge.ch;
University of Geneva & GeneProt; +41-22- 372-7355
Ian Humphery-Smith: i.humphery-smith@pharm.uu.nl;
University of Utrecht & Glaucus Proteomics; +31-61-50-11-278
Peter James: peter.james@elmat.lth.se; Lund University; +41-1724-3249
Joachim Klose: klose@charite.de; Humboldt-Universitat; +49-30-450-66133
Joshua LaBaer: joshua_labaer@hms.harvard.edu; Harvard Medical School;
+1-617-432-2659
Hanno Langen: hanno.langen@roche.com; F.Hoffmann-La Roche; +41-61-6882-758
Matthias Mann: mann@bmb.sdu.dk; University of Southern Denmark & MDS
Proteomics; +45-6550-2364
Kazuyuki Nakamura: nakamura@po.cc.yamaguchi-u.ac.jp; Yamaguchi University;
+81-836-22-2212
Raj Parekh: raj.parekh@ogs.co.uk; Oxford GlycoSciences; +44-1235-208-000
Scott Patterson: scott.patterson@celera.com; Celera Genomics;
+1-240-453-3000
Christopher Pearce; psplc@compuserve.com; Proteome Sciences Plc;
+44-1932-865-065
Peter Roepstorff: roe@PR-Group.sdu.dk; University of Southern Denmark;
+45-6550-2404
Richard Simpson: Richard.Simpson@ludwig.edu.au ; Ludwig Institute for
Cancer Research & Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research;
+61-3-9341-3155
Ian Tomlinson: imt@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk; MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology;
+44-1223-402-103
Akira Tsugita: tsugita@proteo.gr.jp; Science University of Tokyo,
+81-298-51-1601
John Yates: jyates@scripps.edu; Scripps Research Institute;
+1-858-784-8862
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