CeMM: Setting the foundation to map the proteome

A joint research project of the CeMM and ETH Zurich seems to make the complete mapping of the interactions within the human proteome achievable. Researchers around Giulio Superti-Furga, Scientific Director at CeMM and Matthias Gstaiger, Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich demonstrated in a systematic study of the intra- and interlaboratory reproducibility of a standardized affinity purification-mass spectrometry protocol the high reproducibility of this technique and hints at the feasibility of a large-scale human interactome project through interlaboratory efforts. The study involved the laboratories of Keiryn Bennett, Ruedi Aebersold, director of the institute at the ETH and Jacques Colinge. Giulio Superti-Furga, "The knowledge of the complex interplay of proteins is a Rosetta stone for the interpretation of the genome. Only then we can try to understand the role of individual gene products and how their interaction actually works. This unique Zurich-Vienna effort have shown that our technology is very reliable. I would like to thank everybody involved for the heroic effort. It would now take about 10 million Euro and approximately 5 years of workt to map of the entire machinery of the human cell.” The study was published in Nature Methods ahead of print on March 3rd, 2013,  DOI 10.1038/nmeth.2400.