5th HUPO BPP Bioinformatics Meeting at the European Bioinformatics Institute in Hinxton, UK--Setting the analysis frame

The Bioinformatics Committee of the HUPO Brain Proteome Project (HUPO BPP) meets regularly to execute the post-lab analyses of the data produced in the HUPO BPP pilot studies. On July 7, 2005 the members came together for the 5th time at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) in Hinxton, UK, hosted by Rolf Apweiler. As a main result, the parameter set of the semi-automated data re-analysis of MS/MS spectra has been elaborated and the subsequent work steps have been defined.     

HUPO Brain Proteome Project Pilot Studies: bioinformatics at work

The data acquisition phase of initial pilot studies (human and mouse brain samples) of the Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO) Brain Proteome Project (BPP) is now complete and the data generated by the participating laboratories has been submitted to the central Data Collection Center. The BPP Bioinformatics Group met on 8th April 2005 at the European Bioinformatics Institute (Hinxton, UK) to discuss strategies for the reanalysis of the pooled data from all the participating laboratories. A summary of the results of the data reprocessing will be presented at the 4th HUPO World Congress that will be held in August/September 2005.     

Bridging Proteomics and Medical Science - the 5th HUPO Brain Proteome Workshop in Dublin, Ireland

More than 70 interested colleagues attended the 5th Workshop of the HUPO Brain Proteome Project (HUPO BPP) at the UCD Conway Institute, Dublin, Ireland. An overview of the outcome of the pilot study was presented and the new subprojects "Clinical Neuroproteomics of Human Body Fluids" as well as "Cerebellum 2D-mapping" were announced. In addition the election of the HUPO BPP committees and the future directions of this project were discussed and decided. The meeting was enhanced by several talks highlighting the application of proteomics in biomedical research.     

The HUPO Brain Proteome project wish list--summary of the 9(th) HUPO BPP Workshop 9-10 January 2008, Barbados

The Human Brain Proteome Project (HUPO BPP) aims at advancing knowledge and the understanding of neurodiseases and aging with the purpose of identifying prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers, as well as to push new diagnostic approaches and medications. The participating groups meet in semi-annual workshops to discuss the progress, as well as the needs, within the field of proteomics. The 9(th) HUPO BPP workshop took place in Barbados from 9-10 January, 2008. Discussing the future HUPO BPP Roadmap, the attendees drafted the so called HUPO BPP wish list containing timelines, suggestions and missions. This wish list will be updated regularly and will serve as a guideline for the next phase.     

A comparison of the HUPO Brain Proteome Project pilot with other proteomics studies

The pilot phase of the Brain Proteome Project (BPP), the Human Proteome Organization (HUPO) initiative that focuses on studies of the brain of both humans and mice, has now been completed. Participating laboratories studied the proteomes of two human samples derived from biopsy and autopsy as well as three mouse samples from various developmental stages. With the combined and centrally reprocessed data now available, a comparison in terms of protein identifications and project organization is made between the HUPO BPP pilot and three other proteomics studies: the HUPO Plasma Proteome Project (PPP) pilot, a proteome of human blood platelets and a recently published comprehensive mouse proteome. Finally, as any comparison between large-scale proteomics datasets is decidedly non-trivial, we also evaluate and discuss several ways to go about comparing such different result sets.     

Translational proteomics in neurodegenerative diseases--16th HUPO BPP workshop September 5, 2011 Geneva, Switzerland

The HUPO Brain Proteome Project (HUPO BPP) held its 16th workshop in Geneva, Switzerland, on September 5, 2011 during the 10th HUPO World Congress. The focus was on launching the Human Brain Proteome Atlas as well as ideas, strategies and methodological aspects in clinical neuroproteomics.     

Creating a human brain proteome atlas--14th HUPO BPP workshop September 20-21, 2010, Sydney, Australia

The HUPO Brain Proteome Project (HUPO BPP) held its 14th workshop during the HUPO 9th Annual World Congress in Sydney, Australia. The principal aim of this project is to discover prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers associated with neurodegenerative diseases and brain aging, with the ultimate objective of obtaining a better understanding of these conditions and creating roads for the development of novel diagnostic techniques and effective treatments. The attendees came together to discuss progress in the human clinical neuroproteomics and to define the needs and guidelines required for more advanced proteomics approaches.     

Frontiers in Neurodegeneration – New Insights and Prospects – 20th HUPO BPP Workshop

The HUPO Brain Proteome Project (HUPO BPP) held its 20th workshop in Yokohama, Japan, September 15, 2013. The focus of the autumn workshop was on new insights and prospects of neurodegenerative diseases.     

Clinical aspects of neurodegenerative diseases - 15th HUPO BPP Workshop April 8-9, 2011, Bochum, Germany

The HUPO Brain Proteome Project (HUPO BPP) held its 15th workshop in Bochum, Germany, from April 8th to 9th, 2011 directly after the Proteomic Forum 2011 in Berlin. Like on every spring workshop, the focus was more on clinical aspects, so that especially clinicians participated in this workshop.     

Early Diagnosis of Neurodegenerative Diseases – The Long Awaited Holy Grail and Bottleneck of Modern Brain Research – 19th HUPO BPP Workshop

The HUPO Brain Proteome Project (HUPO BPP) held its 19th workshop in Dortmund, Germany, from May 22 to 24, 2013. The focus of the spring workshop was on strategies and developments concerning early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases     

Creating a human brain proteome atlas--13th HUPO BPP Workshop March 30-31, 2010, Ochang, Korea

The HUPO Brain Proteome Project (HUPO BPP) held its 13th workshop in Ochang from March 30th to 31st, 2010 prior to the Korean HUPO 10th Annual International Proteomics Conference. The principal aim of this project is to obtain a better understanding of neurodiseases and aging with the ultimate objective of discovering prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers, in addition to the development of novel diagnostic techniques and new medications. The attendees came together to discuss progress in the clinical neuroproteomics of human and to define the needs and guidelines required for more advanced proteomics approaches.     

Human Brain Proteome Project – 12th HUPO BPP Workshop 26 September 2009, Toronto,Canada

The HUPO Brain Proteome Project (HUPO BPP) held its 12th workshop in Toronto on 26 September 2009 prior to the HUPO VIII World Congress. The principal aim of this project is to obtain a better understanding of neurodiseases and ageing, with the ultimate objective of discovering prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers, in addition to the development of novel diagnostic techniques and new medications. The attendees came together to discuss progress in the human clinical neuroproteomics and to define the needs and guidelines required for more advanced proteomic approaches.     

Great mood in proteomics: Beijing and the HUPO Human Brain Proteome Project

More than 1200 attendees came together at the 3(rd) HUPO World Congess in Beijing, October 25-27, 2004. In numerous different sessions the wide range of proteomic areas became visible. The HUPO Brain Proteome Project (HUPO BPP) organized an evening session on October 23, presenting the first results of two pilot studies as well as the newest, very positive international development in this field. The rising importance became even more apparent in the plenary presentation of all HUPO initiatives and the following congress activities.     

Key players in neurodegenerative disorders in focus—New insights into the proteomic profile of Alzheimer's disease,schizophrenia, ALS,and multiple sclerosis—24th HUPO BPP Workshop

The HUPO Brain Proteome Project (HUPO BPP) held its 24th workshop in Vancouver, Canada, September 29, 2015. The focus of the autumn workshop was on new insights into the proteomic profile of Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, ALS and multiple sclerosis.     

Proteomics for everyday use: activities of the HUPO Brain Proteome Project during the 5th HUPO World Congress

Long Beach hosted this year's annual congress of the Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO). In addition to the numerous sessions, talks and poster presentations organized by HUPO itself, several events were arranged by the HUPO initiatives. The Brain Proteome Project (HUPO BPP) was very active, initiating three pre-congress workshops: (i) the kick-off meeting of the EU-funded ProDaC consortium (Proteomics Data Collection) that is aiming at the bioinformatics Standardization in the proteomics field; (ii) the workshop "Standardization Issues in Proteomics: Perspectives from Vendors" giving an overview about the lessons learned by proteomics industrial partners; (iii) the 6th HUPO BPP Workshop "New Proteomics Approaches for further HUPO BPP Studies" offering new concepts for brain-related proteomics studies.     

HUPO Brain Proteome Project: summary of the pilot phase and introduction of a comprehensive data reprocessing strategy

The Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO) initiated several projects focusing on the proteome analysis of distinct human organs. The Brain Proteome Project (BPP) is the initiative dedicated to the brain, its development and correlated diseases. Two pilot studies have been performed aiming at the comparison of techniques, laboratories and approaches. With the help of the results gained, objective data submission, storage and reprocessing workflow have been established. The biological relevance of the data will be drawn from the inter-laboratory comparisons as well as from the re-calculation of all data sets submitted by the different groups. In the following, results of the single groups as well as the centralised reprocessing effort will be summarised and compared, showing the added value of this concerted work.     

HUPO BPP pilot study: a proteomics analysis of the mouse brain of different developmental stages

This study is a part of the HUPO Brain Proteome Project (BPP) pilot study, which aims at obtaining a reliable database of mouse brain proteome, at the comparison of techniques, laboratories, and approaches as well as at preparing subsequent proteome studies of neurologic diseases. The C57/Bl6 mouse brains of three developmental stages at embryonic day 16 (E16), postnatal day 7 (P7), and 8 wk (P56) (n = 5 in each group) were provided by the HUPO BPP executive committee. The whole brain proteins of each animal were individually prepared using 2-DE coupled with PDQuest software analysis. The protein spots representing developmentally related or stably expressed proteins were then prepared with in-gel digestion followed with MALDI-TOF/TOF MS/MS and analyzed using the MASCOT search engines to search the Swiss-Prot or NCBInr database. The 2-DE gel maps of the mouse brains of all of the developmental stages were obtained and submitted to the Data Collection Centre (DCC). The proteins alpha-enolase, stathmin, actin, C14orf166 homolog, 28,000 kDa heat- and acid-stable phosphoprotein, 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase and 40 S ribosomal protein S3a were successfully identified. A further Western blotting analysis demonstrated that enolase is a protein up-regulated in the mouse brain from embryonic stage to adult stage. These data are helpful for understanding the proteome changes in the development of the mouse brain.     

Towards standard protocols and guidelines for urine proteomics: a report on the Human Kidney and Urine Proteome Project (HKUPP) symposium and workshop, 6 October 2007, Seoul, Korea and 1 November 2007, San Francisco, CA, USA

The Human Kidney and Urine Proteome Project (HKUPP) was initiated in 2005 to promote proteomics research in the nephrology field, to better understand kidney functions as well as pathogenic mechanisms of kidney diseases, and to define novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets. This project was first approved in 2005 by the Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO) as a Kidney Disease Initiative under an umbrella of the HUPO Disease Biomarker Initiative (DBI), and more recently was approved as the HKUPP Initiative in 2007. Several sub-projects have been planned to achieve the ultimate goals. The most pressing is the establishment of "standard protocols and guidelines for urine proteome analysis". This sub-project had been extensively discussed during the first HKUPP symposium (during 6(th) HUPO Annual World Congress--October 2007, Seoul, Korea) and second workshop (during 40(th) American Society of Nephrology Renal Week--November 2007, San Francisco, CA, USA). Additional data and references have been collected after the symposium and workshop. An initial draft of standard protocols and guidelines for proteome analysis of non-proteinuric urine (urine protein excretion < or =150 mg/day) will soon be released as the first HKUPP product.     

7th HUPO World Congress of Proteomics: Launching the Second Phase of the HUPO Plasma Proteome Project (PPP‐2) 16–20 August 2008, Amsterdam,The Netherlands

The HUPO Plasma Proteome Project new phase, PPP‐2, held its initial workshop on 17 August, 2008, at the 7^th World Congress of Proteomics in Amsterdam. Technology platforms, data repositories, informatics, and engagement of research groups for the submission of major datasets were key topics. Plasma is expected to be the common pathway for biomarker development and application through collaboration and integration with other HUPO initiatives.     

Examination of 2-DE in the Human Proteome Organisation Brain Proteome Project pilot studies with the new RAIN gel matching technique

The Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO) Brain Proteome Project (BPP) pilot studies have generated over 200 2-D gels from eight participating laboratories. This data includes 67 single-channel and 60 DIGE gels comparing 30 whole frozen C57/BL6 female mouse brains, ten each at embryonic day 16, postnatal day 7 (juvenile) and postnatal day 54-56 (adult); and ten single-channel and three DIGE gels comparing human epilepsy surgery of the temporal front lobe with a corresponding post-mortem specimen. The samples were generated centrally and distributed to the participating laboratories, but otherwise no restrictions were placed on sample preparation, running and staining protocols, nor on the 2-D gel analysis packages used. Spots were characterised by MS and the annotated gel images published on a ProteinScape web server. In order to examine the resultant differential expression and protein identifications, we have reprocessed a large subset of the gels using the newly developed RAIN (Robust Automated Image Normalisation) 2-D gel matching algorithm. Traditional approaches use symbolic representation of spots at the very early stages of the analysis, which introduces persistent errors due to inaccuracies in spot modelling and matching. With RAIN, image intensity distributions, rather than selected features, are used, where smooth geometric deformation and expression bias are modelled using multi-resolution image registration and bias-field correction. The method includes a new approach of volume-invariant warping which ensures the volume of protein expression under transformation is preserved. An image-based statistical expression analysis phase is then proposed, where small insignificant expression changes over one gel pair can be revealed when reinforced by the same consistent changes in others. Results of the proposed method as applied to the HUPO BPP data show significant intra-laboratory improvements in matching accuracy over a previous state-of-the-art technique, Multi-resolution Image Registration (MIR), and the commercial Progenesis PG240 package.