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| Proteomics: Characterizing the Cogs in the Machinery of Life Ernie Hood Abstract
Now that the human genome sequence is complete, the quest to extract beneficial knowledge from it is on. One of the most promising, active areas of exploration lies in the human proteome--the global expression of proteins, those marvelous strings of amino acids responsible for all human biologic processes. Proteins are life, and the recently developed ability to study them on a large scale, quantitatively and qualitatively, is known as proteomics. The human proteome may never be completely solved in the same way the genome was. The genome is relatively static, and presented a finite end point. The proteome is dynamic, changing constantly with time and conditions, with proteins interacting to form networks and pathways to respond to stimuli and carry on the endless business of cellular function. The challenge of completely mapping the proteome is widely considered to be several orders of magnitude greater than that of the genome. The picture is so complex and so dynamic that some proteomics experts question the very concept of the existence of a measurable human proteome. Famed genomicist J. Craig Venter put this doubt succinctly when he told the 5 April 2001 Wall Street Journal that "there ain't no such thing as a proteome."
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