Integrating molecular medicine with functional proteomics: Realities and expectations

We analyze key proteomic issues and cutting-edge technologies that will spe arhead inroads into functional interpretations of human diseases and their therapeutic rectification, following the availability of the predicted huma n proteome. We contrast the distinctions between high quality data that are low throughput, (e.g., 3-D proteomic reconstructions in embryogenic and ne rvous system contexts, and multigenerational transgenic studies), versus au tomated data harvesting that is more distant from human disease phenotypes and currently fulfills a diagnostic role, (e.g., molecular portraits of hum an diseases via transcriptomic analyses). We examine the extent to which th ese approaches impinge upon a realistic understanding of human diseases, na mely how close they come to revealing the causal events involved in the ini tiation of disease. While tissue sources from human embryogenesis, foetal d evelopment and the brain remain the absolute priority, the pragmatic approa ches utilize judicious data integration from selected proteomic studies of model organisms. The role of genome-wide disease-related screens, "humanize d" transgenic analyses, multigenerational gene interference methods, and an alyses of post-translational modifications in epigenetic contexts from Dros ophila will be crucial, since these avenues are far too slow and transgenic ally cumbersome in mammals. Finally, the implementation of multi compartmen t electrolyzers (MCE) and multi photon detection (MPD) systems will be pivo tal for the proteomic profiling of human tissue samples.