£5 million initiative to find out how cancer and other diseases affect proteins in cells

New research set to unlock the secrets of the cell - News

By Danielle Reeves
16 January 2007

A new initiative has been set up at Imperial College London to gain a better understanding of what happens to cells on the molecular level when they are affected by diseases like cancer. The £5 million EPSRC-funded scheme, which is being run in partnership with the Institute of Cancer Research and the London Research Institute of Cancer Research UK, will focus on analysing and measuring the thousands of proteins found in individual cells.

The Single Cell Proteomics project will look at which proteins are found in particular cells, and in what quantities, with particular emphasis on how these factors may change in cancerous cells. Studying proteins in this way represents the next step on from the human genome project. Genes contain information which is translated into proteins in cells, and although scientists have now identified all the genes in human DNA, the task of identifying functions of many of these genes and proteins remains.

Professor David Klug   from Imperial's Department of Chemistry, leader of the Single Cell Proteomics project, explains: "Understanding what the different proteins in our cells do, and how they react when something goes wrong – like a cancer – is one of the key challenges in post-genomic science. Proteins participate in every process within cells, from immune responses to cell signalling, and so if we can come to a greater understanding of how these functions work, we should be able to get a better insight than ever before into how a healthy cell becomes diseased."

The research team, which includes physicists and chemists and biologists, has chosen to focus their research on the proteins found in the cell membrane – the barrier which separates the inside of the cell from the outside environment. This particular area of the cell has been chosen because many of the proteins in the membrane are affected by diseases, or are the targets of existing drugs. A greater understanding of where and when these proteins are expressed may lead to new treatments and drugs for diseases like cancer, and may increase scientists' understanding of how stem cells work.

The EPSRC grant which has funded the project will allow the team to develop new physical, chemical and biological ways to selectively manipulate and digest the outer membrane of single cells, so that the protein composition of the membrane can be analysed. Achieving this reliably is one of the hurdles to overcome in the developing field of proteomics.

There are currently 18 people working on the Single Cell Proteomics project, which is run under the auspices of Imperial's Chemical Biology Centre. In the coming months the team will be looking to recruit three PhDs and one post doctoral research assistant. For more information on these positions and Single Cell Proteomics at Imperial College London, go to www.chemicalbiology.ac.uk/studentships.html 

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