PROTEOMEBINDERS (FP6)
PROTEOMEBINDERS
Full title: A European Infrastructure of Ligand Binding Molecules against the Human Proteome
Grantor: European Commission: 6th Framework Programme (FP6)
Grantor's website: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp6/
Programme: Research Infrastructures
Programme website: http://cordis.europa.eu/infrastructures/
Instrument: Coordination Action
Duration: 2006-2010
Coordinator: Mike Taussig, Babraham Bioscience Technologies, Cambridge, UK
No. of participants: 27
Partner from the Center for Proteomics: Bojan Polic, Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka
Project website: http://www.proteomebinders.org/
Brief description:
ProteomeBinders is a European consortium proposing to establish a comprehensive infrastructure resource of binding molecules for detection of the human proteome, together with tools for their use and applications in studying proteome function and organisation.
This 4-year FP6 Research Infrastructures Coordination Action, started in March 2006, is funded with 1.8 M€ and links 25 EU and 2 USA partners, leaders in the area of binders and their applications. The project advocates the organisation of an infrastructure of binders, available at cost and with no restrictions for research use.
Currently there is no pan-European platform for the systematic development and quality control for these essential reagents. The consortium aims to provide a set of consistently characterised binders, required to detect all the relevant human proteins in tissues and fluids in health and disease. As the size of the human proteome is at least an order of magnitude greater than the ~ 24.000 protein coding genes known to date, and as for many applications several binders against each target are needed, the scale of our project is potentially immense.
To date, antibodies are the most widely used protein-binders, but novel binder types based on alternative protein scaffolds, nucleic acids, peptides and chemical entities each have significant advantages and will be carefully evaluated. A European resource will be coordinated by integrating existing infrastructures, reviewing technologies and high-throughput production methods, standardising tools and applications, and establishing a database.
Being one of the largest genome-scale projects in Europe, aiming ultimately to produce and collect hundreds of thousands of specific binders, the ProteomeBinders resource will bring huge benefits for basic and applied research, impacting on healthcare, diagnostics, target discovery for drug intervention and therapeutics.
