At the turn of 2001, it was announced that the human genome had been sequenced and that this was the beginning of a new era for biological research.  Essentially what had been done was to determine the order of the four building blocks (nucleotides) that are joined together to form the pairs of DNA chains called the chromosomes.  Humans have 46 of these, half of which we receive from our mothers, the other half from the father.  This is virtually all of the information that is handed down from one generation to the next and is essentially the book of building plans for all proteins and how these are should be put together to make our organs and tissues.  The genome centres have determined the order of the billions of nucleotides (called A, C, G and T) and written this down.  Theoretically we should now be able to read the building book of life, since the nucleotides are grouped into ‘pages’ that contain all the information needed to construct a specific protein.  Currently estimates of the number of pages range between 20,000 and 23,000.  These pages are called genes and are photocopied (transcribed) and the photocopies (mRNA) are transported from the cells library (the nucleus where all the chromosomes are stored) to the protein-building factory (the ribosome).  Here the instructions in the photocopies are used to build proteins (translation).

To understand how, when and why proteins are transcribed a map of all proteins in a cell needs to be analysed. By analysing this information we can start to better understand of what is health and what is disease. At the department we are using novel methods to analyse the protein fingerprint of our cells in health an diseases.

Further information can be found here

Ongoing projects

• Computational proteomics (PI Fredrik Levander)
• Development and application of the protein biomarker discovery platform GPS (Global Proteome Survey) for improved patient stratification in breast cancer (PI Fredrik Levander)
• AFFIRM--a multiplexed immunoaffinity platform that combines recombinant antibody fragments and LC-SRM analysis 
• Proteomics for late blight resistance in potato (PI: Fredrik Levander)