The Human Proteome Organization Chromosome 6 Consortium: integrating chromosome-centric and biology/disease driven strategies.
The Human Proteome Project (HPP) is designed to generate a comprehensive map of the protein-based molecular architecture of the human body, to provide a resource to help elucidate biological and molecular function, and to advance diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Within this framework, the chromosome-based HPP (C-HPP) has allocated responsibility for mapping individual chromosomes by country or region, while the biology/disease HPP (B/D-HPP) coordinates these teams in cross-functional disease-based groups. Chromosome 6 (Ch6) provides an excellent model for integration of these two tasks. This metacentric chromosome has a complement of 1002-1034 genes that code for known, novel or putative proteins. Ch6 is functionally associated with more than 120 major human diseases, many with high population prevalence, devastating clinical impact and profound societal consequences. The unique combination of genomic, proteomic, metabolomic, phenomic and health services data being drawn together within the Ch6 program has enormous potential to advance personalized medicine by promoting robust biomarkers, subunit vaccines and new drug targets. The strong liaison between the clinical and laboratory teams, and the structured framework for technology transfer and health policy decisions within Canada will increase the speed and efficacy of this transition, and the value of this translational research.


CONCLUSIONS
Canada has been selected to play a leading role in the international Human Proteome Project, the global counterpart of the Human Genome Project designed to understand the structure and function of the human proteome in health and disease. Canada will lead an international team focusing on chromosome 6, which is functionally associated with more than 120 major human diseases, including immune and inflammatory disorders affecting the brain, skeletal system, heart and blood vessels, lungs, kidney, liver, gastrointestinal tract and endocrine system. Many of these chronic and persistent diseases have a high population prevalence, devastating clinical impact and profound societal consequences. As a result, they impose a multi-billion dollar economic burden on Canada and on all advanced societies through direct costs of patient care, the loss of health and productivity, and extensive caregiver burden. There is no definitive treatment at the present time for any of these disorders. The manuscript outlines the research which will involve a systematic assessment of all chromosome 6 genes, development of a knowledge base, and development of assays and reagents for all chromosome 6 proteins. We feel that the informatic infrastructure and MRM assays developed will place the chromosome 6 consortium in an excellent position to be a leading player in this major international research initiative. This article is part of a Special Issue: Can Proteomics Fill the Gap Between Genomics and Phenotypes?
University of Victoria/Genome BC Proteomics Centre, Victoria, BC, Canada.
C H
CH
Borchers
Biomedical Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
J
J
Kast
Centre for High Throughput Biology, University of British Columbia, BC, Canada.
L J
LJ
Foster
Centre for Research in Mass Spectrometry, York University, Ontario, Canada.
K W M
KW
Siu
Centre for Blood Research, Faculty of Dentistry, University of British Columbia, Canada.
C M
CM
Overall
Midwest Centre for Structural Genomics, Argonne National Laboratory and Computation Institute, University of Chicago, USA.
T A
TA
Binkowski
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Oklahoma, OK, USA.
W H
WH
Hildebrand
Australian Genome Research Facility, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Parkville, Australia.
A
A
Scherer
Department Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
M
M
Mansoor
Department Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Electronic address: paul_keown@yahoo.com.
P A
PA
Keown
D002170:Canada; D002896:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 6; D002908:Chronic Disease; D030342:Genetic Diseases, Inborn / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics*; D023281:Genomics; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000235:genetics; D059866:HLA-DQ beta-Chains / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016045:Human Genome Project / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008024:Ligands; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex / Q000235:genetics; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D020543:Proteome / Q000378:metabolism; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics
D006680:HLA Antigens; D059866:HLA-DQ beta-Chains; D008024:Ligands; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D020543:Proteome; D014157:Transcription Factors
Chromosome 6; Human Proteome Project; Proteomics