What is the CPFM?

General Overview

The promise of genomics has always been to provide a better understanding of the molecular foundations of life. We frequently put molecules in our bodies (medicines) and in the environment (pollutants), hoping to create or avoid certain biological effects. Since nearly all biological effects have their roots in chemical interactions with the proteins encoded by genomes, advances in Chemical Proteomics will provide many benefits to society. Knowledge gained from Chemical Proteomics will lead to better medicines, as well as a more informed way of interacting with our environment. The CPFM strives to contribute towards this endeavor, and to share some of the excitement of science in service to society as part of the educational process.

Specifics

With the sequencing of human and other genomes now completed, we are faced with the post-genomic challenge of figuring out what all these proteins do. Proteomics is broadly focused on the study of the protein complement of the genome, while "Chemical Proteomics" is committed to using the tools of chemistry to understand how these proteins work.

To this end, the Chemical Proteomics Facility at Marquette (CPFM) is being formed, with a mission to develop and apply chemical probes for exploring function across protein families. The facility will be highly collaborative, providing resources to local researchers involved in the broad study of protein function using chemistry. Initial focus will be on using tools such as fluorescence polarization, fluorescence microscopy, NMR spectroscopy, molecular imaging and electrophoresis, as well as computational tools such as ligand-docking and cheminformatic analysis protein ligands.

The CPFM is tapping into regional strengths, which include the nearby Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center (MFBSC) and the NMR Facility at Madison (NMRFAM). The recent acquisition of Internet2 high-speed capability will be vital in providing better interconnection of CPFM collaborators, and better access to regional resources - especially NMRFAM. NMRFAM is one of the best equipped NMR labs in the world, equipped with over 5 high field spectrometers, including a 900 MHz spectrometer (currently state-of-the art). These instruments are used to study protein function at the molecular level. NMR spectroscopy is one of the best tools for such studies since it can be performed both on isolated proteins as well as whole organisms.

The timeliness of NMR's impact on biology is evidenced by recent Nobel prizes in Chemistry (2002) and Medicine (2003) for innovations in the method. The MFBSC is equipped with facilities for breeding and holding over 10,000 zebrafish. The zebrafish is an ideal model system for carrying chemical proteomic studies into the context of a whole organism, since it has many of the same proteins that humans do, and its genome is nearly sequenced. It is also a model for studying the effect of environmental pollutants on aquatic wildlife.

Current CPFM projects address studies of:


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Marquette University Chemical Protemics Facility at Marquette