ISB News

Human proteome blueprint

HUPO Releases 10-Year High-Stringency Blueprint of Human Proteome

Like the draft “shotgun” Human Genome Project of the Human Genome Organization (HUGO), the HPP has now reached a significant decadal milestone of more than 90 percent completion of the Human Proteome that is referred to as the human proteome “parts list.”

Malaria Researchers’ Findings May Have Implications for Preventing Spread of Deadly Disease

ISB researchers and their collaborators are using systems biology approaches to learn how the malaria parasite is able to transfer to humans via the bite of an infected mosquito. The information they have uncovered may help identify new ways to prevent people from contracting the deadly disease.

Andrea Varela-Stokes

ISB’s Moritz Lab Lands NIH Grant to Study Lyme Disease

ISB’s Moritz Lab has received research funding totaling nearly $525,000 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health to develop “novel peptide based biomarkers for Lyme disease diagnostics.”

ISB’s proteomics research in the spotlight

Microsoft Research recently deployed a video crew to come to ISB to speak with our researchers about proteomics and sharing peptide data. A story featuring the video was published on the Microsoft Research blog.

Reconstructing 'Ötzi' the Iceman’s last meal

Members of the Moritz lab, as part of an international consortium centered in Bolzano Italy, reports this week in Cell, “Current Biology”, a multi-omic approach to identify the stomach contents and microbiome of the 5300 year old Mummy, Oetzi, the Iceman from the Oetzal Alps on the Austrian/Italian border.

Promotion: Michael Hoopmann Becomes Senior Research Scientist

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Hoopmann, of the Moritz Lab, who has been promoted to Senior Research Scientist. His research is focused on proteomics technology and methods development, having been trained in both instrumentation and software data analysis, with particular focus on high-resolution mass spectrometry. His current interests are in the development of advanced algorithms for discovery-based proteomics. He is the developer of the Kojak algorithm, a versatile, open-source software application…

‘A Better Blood Test for Liver Damage’

Chemical & Engineering News highlighted ISB’s recent publication (Identifying Organ-Specific Blood Biomarkers for Acute Liver Injury) in the Journal of Proteome Research. “For many years, clinicians have relied on assays for two enzymes, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), to detect liver injury. These biomarkers have limitations, says Leroy Hood of the Institute for Systems Biology, such as a short half-life and a tendency to underreport damage in certain…

ISB releases open-source software to analyze digital fingerprint of protein data

3 Bullets SWATH mass spectrometry, an emerging protein analysis technique being pioneered by ISB researchers, provides a digital fingerprint of all accessible proteins in a sample. The data generated by the SWATH technique are highly complex and require sophisticated computational tools in order to extract identities from a sea of data. ISB researchers have released a free, open source program that allows users to confidently identify and quantify proteins analyzed…

ISB and P&G researchers identify markers of healthy skin development

3 Bullets: The barrier function of skin is integral to personal well-being and is associated with several widespread diseases such as eczema and psoriasis. ISB and Procter & Gamble researchers used human skin grown in the lab to measure changes in protein levels as the skin matures. The results of this study provide many new markers for healthy skin development. By Dr. Kristian Swearingen and Dr. Jason Winget In a…

The Institute for Systems Biology has a mission to make data available to the world. In a paper recently published in the journal Current Protocols in Bioinformatics, proteomics researchers in the lab of Dr. Robert Moritz provide a step-by-step tutorial demonstrating how to take advantage of web-based applications that let researchers share and use proteomics data.

Let Us Tell You Everything We Know About Proteomics – Everything

3 Bullets: Proteomics experiments generate huge amounts of raw data, most of which cannot be easily shared or described in a publication. ISB researchers curate publicly accessible databases that allow researchers to share their data with the world and to use data others have collected. All data are analyzed in a consistent manner and results are presented via searchable, user-friendly web applications. By Dr. Kristian Swearingen Institute for Systems Biology…

A New Approach to Identifying How the Deadly Dengue Virus Multiplies

3 Bullets: Dengue virus is the most prevalent mosquito-borne virus worldwide, infecting an estimated 400 million people per year and causing about 25,000 deaths. It’s necessary to understand the molecular mechanisms of dengue replication in order to develop an effective treatment. Researchers at ISB and Seattle BioMed developed a novel approach for identifying host proteins that associate with dengue replication machinery. By Thurston Herricks Dengue virus (DENV) infects approximately 400…

ISB Researchers Identify New Protein Modification Critical to Growth of Tuberculosis Pathogen

3 Bullets: Institute for Systems Biology and Seattle BioMed researchers collaborated and discovered a new protein post-translational modification in the human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Post-translational modifications are essential mechanisms used by cells to diversify protein functions and ISB scientists identified the rare phosphorylated tyrosine post translational modification on Mycobacterium tuberculosis proteins using mass spectrometry. Inhibiting phosphotyrosine modified amino acids in Mycobacterium tuberculosis severely limits the growth of this widespread deadly…

The Rise of Open Proteomics

Researchers at EMBL-EBI, Institute for Systems Biology and other partnering organizations have launched ProteomeXchange, a public portal for exchanging proteomics data generated from mass-spectrometry experiments and other related information. From the EMBL-EBI-issued press release: Eric Deutsch, head of PeptideAtlas at the Institute for Systems Biology in the U.S., says: “I’m certain that the ProteomeXchange system is already leading to greater awareness and reuse of publicly available datasets. I’m regularly contacted…