The Human Protein Atlas project part of new centre for protein research
On January 1, 2016, a new centre for protein research in Sweden will be established. The Human Protein Atlas project at IGP will be one of the nodes of the centre, together with Royal Institute of Technology and Chalmers University of Technology. The centre has the aim to develop future targeted biopharmaceuticals.
Approximately 100 people will be working with research at the new centre, called Wallenberg Centre for Protein Research (WCPR). The main focus will be on continued mapping and characterization of human proteins, introduction of new potential protein pharmaceuticals, and development of new platforms for production of pharmaceuticals.
The Human Protein Atlas project started in 2003, and in November 2014 a first draft of a complete tissue-based map of the human proteome was released. The part of the Human Protein Atlas project run at IGP mainly focuses on staining and evaluation of protein expression patterns on the cell and organ level in both normal and cancer tissues.
“It feels great to be able to continue the mapping of human proteins and to further develop the protein map with more detailed analyses. We will do more in-depth studies of tissues and cell types not previously investigated, such as fetal organs, retina and other regions of the brain. In addition, we will continue to work on antibody validation and optimizations in order to refine the protein profiling”, says Cecilia Lindskog Bergström, who will be responsible for the Uppsala part of the Human Protein Atlas project.
The new research centre WCPR will mainly be financed by Knut and Alice Wallenberg foundation with a total of 320 million SEK during eight years. Other financiers are Astra Zeneca and its global research and development division MedImmune, and the included universities. In total, 500 million SEK are invested.
More information:
The Human Protein Atlas project at IGP (Link removed)
Article in the journal Science on the mapping of human proteins