Biomedical Applications of Proteomics

In this first book to provide an overview of applications of proteomics in the discovery of new diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic targets, a team of international specialists from research institutions, hospitals and companies contribute with their specific expertise. They cover a wide range of example applications for the most important diseases, such as heart and cardiovascular disorders, cancer, pharmatoxicology, infectious diseases and diseases of the nervous system.
Denis Hochstrasser is an eminent scientist in the field of bioinformatics and proteomics and one of the founders of the Swiss Prot Databank as well as of the Swiss biotech company Genebio.

The first book to provide an overview over applications of proteomics in the discovery of new diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic targets. Examples of applications are presented for the most important diseases like heart and cardiovascular disorders, cancer, infectious diseases and diseases of the nervous system. Aspects of pharmatoxicology as well as bioinformatics are also included.

Authors form the U.S., Europe and Australia contribute with their specific expertise. They are professionals from research institutions, hospitals and companies.

Jean-Charles Sanchez has been working since 1989 in the field of proteomics. He contributed in the development of two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and related procedures and their application in Biomaker discovery research. He obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the Buckingham University (UK) and in 1997 a Business Administration diploma (Officer School of Lausanne). Since 1995, he has been the head of the Biomedical Proteoomics Group at the BPRG at the Geneva University Hospital. He is a founder of the Swiss Proteomics Society, Swiss-2Dservice and Phenomics Sciences Consulting. The activities in his group cover the discovery of new disease markers and drug targets in multi-factorial disorders including cancer, Alzheimer, CJD, stoke, obesity and type II diabetes.

Garary L. Corthals has been involved in proteomics for over 10 years and has focused on integrating MS technologies for protein analysis in biomedical research. His current interests include development of technologies for rapid and sensitive protein analysis to discover new diagnostic markers for disease and to elucidate cellular processes that direct physiological behaviour. Other activities include the synthesis of new chemistries for accurate quantitation or proteins and the concurrent analysis of PTMs; as well as technologies for capturing high density protein profiles. He obtained his Ph.D. in Biology at Macquarie University (Australia) in the field of proteomics. Before arriving in Geneva he worked in the Department of Molecular Biotechnology (UW, Seattle) and directed the Proteomics Facility at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney (Australia). He currently heads the MS Group at the BPRG at Geneva University Hospital and is co-director of the Proteomics Facility of the Faculty of Medicine.

Denis F. Hochstrasser is the director of the Clinical Pathology Department and Head of the Clinical Chemistry Laboratory of the Geneva University Hospital. He obtained his M.D. at Geneva Medical School, and did his internship and residency at UNC, Chapel Hill (USA). He is known for his pioneering development of what is now called proteomics. He initiated work on software development for proteomics data processing 15 years ago and has contributed to the development of the leading 2-D gel analysis software Melaine and related 2-D-PAGE database. He was instru-mental the creation of ExPASy, the fist life sciences devoted web server. Most recently he has been responsible for the Molecular Scanner, a technique that promises to enhance clinical proteomic analysis. He is a founder of the Swiss Institute for Bioinformatics and scientific founder of GeneProt & GeneBio.