Overview

The activity of genes in health and disease are manifested through the proteins which they encode. Ultimately, proteins drive functional processes in cells and tissues and so by measuring individual protein levels, studying modifications and discovering their sites of action we will understand better their function. It is possible to visualise the location of proteins of interest in tissue sections using labelled antibodies which bind to the target protein. This procedure, known as immunohistochemistry, provides valuable information on the cellular and sub-cellular distribution of proteins in tissue.

Historically this information set has been created by disparate groups of workers focusing on one or a few genes of interest. The coverage of genes by this approach is adhoc, and the information is not generated or shared in a consistent fashion. The availability of complete annotated genomes means there are opportunities for more systematic, co-ordinated approaches to capturing, sharing and integrating information generated by an individual experimental approach. The Atlas project aims to create a quality, information rich database of protein expression profiles (AtlasDB), which is accessible to the world-wide research community. The internal consistency and efficiency achieved by executing such an initiative in a single location, using optimised and standardised procedures will add to its value. As well as the long term archival value of the data, the accompanying validated antibody and protein clones will potentially have great research, diagnostic and possibly therapeutic potential.

The Atlas group expresses recombinant protein and uses these as antigens to create recombinant antibodies from phage display technology. The resultant antibodies are used in immunohistochemistry to identify tissue expression patterns and the images are electronically captured and annotated.

The 'Atlas of Protein Expression' team have optimised the component parts of this process, in preparation for running this as a high throughput process by using tissue microarrys (TMA). In particular we have introduced and developed high throughput systems that will allow us to examine 1000’s of tissue samples at a time and capture the results using automated microscopy.