Journal Highlight: The Human Protein Atlas as a proteomic resource for biomarker discovery

The Human Protein Atlas as a proteomic resource for biomarker discovery

Journal of Internal Medicine 2011, 270, 428-446
F. Ponten, J. M. Schwenk, A. Asplund, P.-H. D. Edqvist

Abstract: The analysis of tissue-specific expression at both the gene and protein levels is vital for understanding human biology and disease. Antibody-based proteomics provides a strategy for the systematic generation of antibodies against all human proteins to combine with protein profiling in tissues and cells using tissue microarrays, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence. The Human Protein Atlas project was launched in 2003 with the aim of creating a map of protein expression patterns in normal cells, tissues and cancer. At present, 11,200 unique proteins corresponding to over 50% of all human protein-encoding genes have been analysed. All protein expression data, including underlying high-resolution images, are published on the free and publically available Human Protein Atlas portal (http://www.proteinatlas.org/). This database provides an important source of information for numerous biomedical research projects, including biomarker discovery efforts. Moreover, the global analysis of how our genome is expressed at the protein level has provided basic knowledge on the ubiquitous expression of a large proportion of our proteins and revealed the paucity of cell- and tissue-type-specific proteins.

• This paper is free to view to separationsNOW registered users until the end of January 2012. After this time it will be available via Wiley's Pay-Per-View service for US$29.95.
• Click here to access the abstract of this paper. From here you can progress to read the full paper.
• Click here for more details on Journal of Internal Medicine