BORNHEIM, Germany ¿ The German government fueled a project on the human brain proteome with a three-year, DM20.5 million (US$9.2 million) grant. Three biotech companies and nine academic groups will work on the project.

The proteome is the totality of all proteins in a cell, tissue or whole organism at a certain stage.

The collaborators aim to develop new technologies and discover diagnostic markers and potential drug targets in brain diseases such as Parkinson¿s and Alzheimer¿s, Helmut Meyer of the University of Bochum said. He is the spokesman on the project.

The project includes a group of researchers led by Joachim Klose of Berlin¿s university hospital Chariti. Klose is one of the pioneers in proteome research. In the mid-1970s he developed the 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) contemporaneously with Patrick O¿Farell, who now is at the University of California at San Francisco.

2D-PAGE is a major tool for proteome research. On the 2-D gels, proteins are separated by molecular weight and electric charge. Thus, each protein makes a single spot on the gel.

Klose and his group are investigating the influence of proteases on pathology. They are systematically recording proteases from human and mouse brains, he told BioWorld International.

In addition, they are ¿looking for differences in proteases from healthy vs. pathologic tissue derived from mouse models or human tissue libraries,¿ Klose said. They found such differences in a transgenic mouse model for human Huntington¿s chorea disease, he said.

The results found in the animals¿ proteome help researchers tracking disease-related proteins in the human brain proteome. Thus, in gels from the human brain the scientists found two proteins, which occurred in correlation to Huntington¿s chorea.

The Chariti researchers also aim at investigating brain proteomes related to Alzheimer¿s and Parkinson¿s disease. ¿We are looking for mouse models that meet our needs,¿ Klose said.

Bochum-based Protagen AG will develop technologies to enhance throughput of analysis of proteins identified on the 2-D gels, Protagen Chief Operating Officer Martin Bl|ggel said.

The human brain proteome project plans to combine proteome and gene expression knowledge, Sebastian Delbr|ck, of Berlin-based Scienion AG, said. Scienion¿s task in the program includes investigation of cDNA from disease model brains.

The Berlin-based company MicroDiscovery GmbH will coordinate bioinformatics work. The company aims at building up a bioinformatics proteome platform that enables researchers to match data from different sources, for example expression profiles and protein structure, MicroDiscovery CEO Arif Malik said. In addition, the company plans to establish a proteomics database.

The human brain proteome project is part of a government DM130 million program on new methods for functional proteome analysis. (See BioWorld International, May 30, 2001.)