Cellular & Molecular Biology, Physiology, & Biotechnology Branch
Division of Basic and Translational Sciences
We are seeking Concept Clearance for a Request for Applications (RFA). The purpose of this initiative is to facilitate outstanding multidisciplinary research, aimed at generation of a complete catalogue of all salivary secretory components using state of the art, sensitive, high-throughput proteomics technologies such as mass spectroscopy, 2D liquid chromatography (2DLC), two dimensional electrophoresis and protein microarrays based on aptamers (small molecules) as pattern recognition signals.
To date there are a number of elegant studies on the structure/function of some of the major salivary secretory components. However, there is a need for a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to catalogue all secretory salivary components present in normal parotid, submandibular and sublingual secretions and, if possible, create the periodic table of the salivary proteome that will help elucidate disease pathogenesis and evaluate the influence of medications on the structure, composition and secretion of salivary secretory constituents. The creation of biocomputational methods for maintenance, quality control and provision of stable, comprehensive, fully classified, and accurately annotated protein sequence knowledgebase is also part of this initiative.
It is envisioned that the identification and complete catalogue of salivary secretory components will greatly complement the salivary-based diagnostic technologies program by providing the investigators with a complete catalogue of all salivary constituents. This is particularly important in the validation of the developed diagnostic technologies.
The main aims of this initiative are to foster:
- collaborative and multidisciplinary research using state-of-the-art technologies for the isolation and identification of all proteins present in parotid, submandibular and sublingual secretions; and
- the development of computer programs and algorithms for data entry, storage, acquisition and input of data sets as well as the development of informatics tools and resources share and analyze the collected data.