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 visualize the location of proteins of interest in tissue sections using labeled antibodies which bind to the target protein. This procedure, known as immunohistochemistry (IHC), provides valuable information on the cellular and sub-cellular distribution of proteins in tissue. The project, atlas of protein expression, aims to create a quality, information rich database of protein expression profiles, which is accessible to the world-wide research community. For 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. To achieve this we had introduced a number of novel technologies, e.g. express recombinant proteins, select antibodies, stain proteins present in tissue section, and tissue microarray (TMA) image analysis. These are currently being optimized, automated and integrated into a multi-disciplinary production process. We had also created infrastructure for multi-terabyte scale image capture, established an image analysis capability for initial screening and quantization.

Date Published: 16 March 2006
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 6145, Medical Imaging 2006: PACS and Imaging Informatics, 61450J (16 March 2006); doi: 10.1117/12.652753

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6145:
Medical Imaging 2006: PACS and Imaging Informatics
Steven C. Horii; Osman M. Ratib, Editor(s)