HAMBURG, Germany - The University of Rostock last month opened its Center for Human Proteome Analysis. The new institute will serve as a supporting center for 19 academic and commercial research groups studying protein expression and protein-protein interactions in humans.

The proteome analysis project is funded by a DM 22 million (US$11.6 million) research grant from the Federal Research Ministry, and additional state and regional funds.

"Proteome analysis is one of the most important building blocks for functional genomics," Hans-J|rgen Thiesen, coordinator of the German proteome analysis project and head of the newly established center in Rostock, Germany, told BioWorld International. "Proteome analysis aims to identify and characterize proteins involved in disease processes and to clarify the association between these proteins and corresponding genes. Ultimately, we want to develop evidence-based medicine and we hope to be able to look at polygenic traits individually."

He said the center would use rheumatoid arthritis as a model system to develop and improve proteome analysis tools. "We will examine tissue of the knee joints of patients and combine RNA profiling and protein analysis. RNA expression patterns are analyzed using the technology developed by Affymetrix, and for protein analysis we are currently establishing mass spectrometry."

The center already has access to a bank of 8,000 blood and cerebrospinal liquor samples of patients. To perform genetic analysis of the samples, the center has established a cooperation with Jvrg Epplen, a human geneticist at the University of Bochum, Germany. "We want to know which genes and proteins are associated. In the long run, we will have to perform SNP analysis as well," Thiesen said.

Together with the Institute for Microtechnique Mainz, of Mainz, Germany, the center is developing a technology to separate proteins on chips, and with the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich, a collaboration to develop new detectors for mass spectroscopy has been started. The center also cooperates with eight small and medium-sized bioinformatics and protein analysis companies.

"Improving proteomics tools is the main focus for the moment, but we are interested in cooperation for research services as well," Thiesen said. "In a couple of years we hope to be able to collect venture capital to start a commercial enterprise."

The Steinbeiss Foundation for Technology Transfer, of Stuttgart, Germany, already has become a partner of Rostock University and the center.

State and local governments are supporting the infrastructure needed by building a 5,000-square-meter laboratory building and funding two chairs, which will be held by mass spectrometry and bioinformatics specialists.