Proteomics: Technology and Applications

This meeting took place at the Keystone, Colorado resort from March 25-30, 2003. It was attended by 206 participants, of which 35 were students; 39% of attendees submitted abstracts. The meeting had 30% returning attendees and 70% new attendees. The group of speakers was composed of internationally recruited junior and senior experts in their respective fields. The group included representatives from academia and the private sector, highlights the convergence of proteomics efforts in the two sectors. The completion of the genome sequences of a large number of prokaryotic and eukaryotic species has catalyzed new research approaches to study the structure, function and control of biological processes. They are characterized by the systematic and in many cases quantitative analysis of all the molecules of a particular type expressed by a cell or tissue. The systematic analysis of proteins has been terms ''proteomics''. In an initial phase, most of the proteomics efforts were focused on large-scale protein identification. More recently, the objectives and technologies of proteomics have been diversified and expanded. Current proteomics research attempts to systematically and, where applicable, quantitatively determine the many properties of proteins and their biological function, including: protein abundance, state of modification, specific activity, interaction with other biomolecules, half-life, subcelluar location, structure and more. Significant current challenges include the development of suitable technologies to determine these properties on a proteome-wide scale, the interpretation of the large amounts of data obtained, and the integration of different types of data into a coherent model describing a biological process. The scientific program of the meeting intended to provide an up-to-date overview of the breadth of proteomics research and of emerging and mature technologies. Special emphasis was placed on discussing how proteomics technologies intersect with biological and clinical research. This was accomplished by bringing together leading experts from the different areas of proteomics research with biologists applying these technologies. Additionally, several talks featured comparisons of work in model systems and in mammalian cells, and other discussed computational approaches to mine large datasets of proteomic results in order to obtain biological insights into various processes