EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
editor ial
William S. Hancock Barnett Institute and Department of Chemistry Northeastern University 360 Huntington Avenue 341 Mugar Bldg. Boston, MA 02115 617-373-4881; fax 617-373-2855
[email protected] ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Joshua LaBaer Harvard Medical School
György Marko-Varga
Toward a Common Proteomics Platform
AstraZeneca and Lund University
CONSULTING EDITOR
Jeremy Nicholson Imperial College London
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Ruedi H. Aebersold ETH Hönggerberg
Leigh Anderson Plasma Proteome Institute
Ettore Appella U.S. National Cancer Institute
Rolf Apweiler European Bioinformatics Institute
Ronald Beavis Manitoba Centre for Proteomics
John J. M. Bergeron McGill University
Richard Caprioli Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Christine Colvis U.S. National Institutes of Health
Catherine Fenselau University of Maryland
Daniel Figeys University of Ottawa
Sam Hanash
he first U.S. HUPO meeting was held in Washington, D.C., in March and was a significant success, with some 300 delegates and a three-day science program. It is not my goal to give a meeting report but rather to discuss some issues related to the activities of HUPO. It is clear from publications in proteomics journals as well as the meeting that the field has made substantial progress. Nevertheless, one can also see that many challenges remain, especially with the most complex samples, such as plasma. The boundary conditions range from the targeted study of limited protein mixtures to ambitious global studies. At either extreme, one can ask whether a consensus is beginning to emerge about a common platform for studies. I think most researchers in the field would say that a consensus has not been reached and that rapid evolution in methodology and instrumentation continues. This adds to the challenge for a body such as HUPO, because international, multicenter studies take time and the early phases are largely superseded by progress in methodology. As I see it, though, the main purpose of such meetings is to encourage a diverse group of technologists to coalesce around a platform that can be used for large-scale proteomics studies. At present, I see a lively set of opinions being presented at proteomics meetings. The energetic discussion is heartening, but we should remember that these views need to be subjected to the scrutiny of international studies. This type of examination was important in the sequencing of the human genome and will be even more so in this case because of the proteome’s enormous complexity. So keep up the good work, and be ready to stay the long course.
T
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Stanley Hefta Bristol-Myers Squibb
Denis Hochstrasser University of Geneva
Donald F. Hunt University of Virginia
Barry L. Karger Northeastern University
Daniel C. Liebler Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Lance Liotta U.S. National Cancer Institute
Matthias Mann University of Southern Denmark
David Muddiman Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
Gilbert S. Omenn University of Michigan
Aran Paulus Bio-Rad Laboratories
Jasna Peter-Katalini´c University of Muenster
Emanuel Petricoin George Mason University
Ruth VanBogelen Pfizer Global Research & Development
Peter Wagner Zyomyx
Keith Williams Proteome Systems
Qi-Chang Xia Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry
John R. Yates, III The Scripps Research Institute
© 2005 American Chemical Society
Journal of Proteome Research • Vol. 4, No. 2, 2005
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