Editorial pubs.acs.org/jpr
The Immune System and the Proteome his Special Issue of the Journal of Proteome Research is dedicated to Thomas E. Fehniger, a dear friend and colleague to many of us, who left us much too early (10.1021/ acs.jproteome.6b00964). Tom was an immunologist by training and a true inspiration, driving ideas within JPR throughout an 8 year period. Tom was not only a scientific pioneer but also a highly appreciated mentor among his peers and a true friend to everyone who knew him. Tom was responsible for bringing that “Detroit Spirit”, always open for a challenge, with one eye down the microscope diagnosing a patient tumor, or in the lab in an intense science discussion. He took pride in helping young scientists to get established and realized what it takes to make your case. He was always well-spoken and had a clear view with a delicate elegance that he used to guide discussions with a sense of humor that we enjoyed so much. As a great story teller, teacher, and a man with a great heart, Tom served as an excellent example for us to follow. We have assembled a cross-sectional view of the current practice in the science and art of the immune system and its relation to the proteome, both as the target of study and as a tool to capture wide-ranging results. As far as we know, the first known reference to immunity was during the Plague of Athens in 430 BCE. The Athenian historian Thucydides noted that people who had recovered from a previous occurrence of plague could nurse the sick without contracting the illness a second time. This event occurred during the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war. Notably, the lack of plague immunity resulted in the death of the great statesman Pericles, which finally contributed to the deterioration and fall of the great classical Greece. The challenges we face in human health due to disorders of our immune systems involve a wide range of diseases including autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases, cancer, HIV/ AIDs, and others. We dwell in a scientific community with a great interest in providing detailed and comprehensive data that builds knowledge about protein structure and its relation to function and expression in clinical studies. These studies provide us with best-practice examples of technology platforms applying highly sensitive and accurate identifications of protein constituents present in complex clinical samples. Here there are tools that enable both new insights into how the immune system itself functions and how alterations in the immune system reflect underlying illness. Moreover, the immune system itself provides invaluable tools for improving our ability to measure the proteome. We are very pleased to present this special thematic issue, dedicated to the important topic of proteomics and the immune system. We hope that this collection of papers will serve as a platform for discussion and debate. We intended the individual papers to serve as primers for students and professors, for physicists and Deans of Medicine, and for all of us within the proteomics community. Clinical proteomics is progressing rapidly, and we are happy to provide this JPR Immuno-overview issue dedicated to Thomas Fehniger from
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© 2017 American Chemical Society
his colleagues to help mark our progress and provide direction for the future. Finally, we wish to acknowledge and express our sincere gratitude to the authors and contributors of the papers that follow. You answered our call, and we are truly grateful.
György Marko-Varga
Lund University Tokyo Medical University
Joshua LaBaer
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Arizona State University
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the authors and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
Special Issue: The Immune System and the Proteome 2016 Published: January 6, 2017 1
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.6b00607 J. Proteome Res. 2017, 16, 1−1
