Proteomics for biodefense applications: progress and opportunities

The increasing threat of bioterrorism and continued emergence of new infectious diseases has driven a major resurgence in biomedical research efforts to develop improved treatments, diagnostics and vaccines, as well as increase the fundamental understanding of the host immune response to infectious agents. The availability of multiple mass spectrometry platforms combined with multidimensional separation technologies and microbial genomic databases provides an unprecedented opportunity to develop these much needed resources. An overview of current proteomic strategies applied to microbes and viruses considered potential bioterrorism agents is presented. The emerging area of immunoproteomics as applied to the development of new vaccine targets is also summarized. These powerful research approaches can generate a multitude of potential new protein targets; however, translating these proteomic discoveries to useful counter-bioterrorism products will require large collaborative research efforts across multiple basic science and clinical disciplines. A translational proteomic research paradigm illustrating this approach using influenza virus as an example is discussed.