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National and international proteomics researchers—including several from Children’s—presented recent advances at Children’s fourth annual Proteomics Symposium, held March 13. An outgrowth of the Human Genome Project, proteomics aims to understand the body’s vast array of proteins, a challenging task since our estimated 25,000 genes encode at least 10 times as many proteins.
Hanno Steen, PhD, director of the Proteomics Center, spoke about his efforts to optimize identification and analysis of such large numbers of proteins. Judith Steen, PhD, of Children’s Department of Neurology, described how she uses proteomics to identify proteins involved in cell division. Understanding how cell division is controlled in normal cells could ultimately point to proteins activated during tumor cell replication. Paul Greer, PhD, also from Neurology, described how proteomics has enabled him to better understand Angelman syndrome, a complex genetic disorder that causes developmental delay and other neurologic problems. By looking at the proteins synthesized when the underlying gene, Ube3A, is mutated, Greer can explore how the mutation affects brain cell function.
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