Resolving the spatial distribution of the human proteome at a subcellular level greatly increases our understanding of human biology and disease. Using antibodies generated within the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) project, immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy was applied to systematically explore the spatial distribution of over 12,000 human proteins in cultivated cell lines and map them to 30 subcellular structures with single-cell resolution. From this extensive subcellular protein profiling data, 13 different organelle proteomes could be defined. Exploration of the proteomes reveals single-cell variations of abundance or spatial distribution, and localization of approximately half of the proteins to multiple compartments. This subcellular map can be used to refine existing protein-protein interaction networks and provides an important resource to deconvolute the highly complex architecture of the human cell. The work and the results from this effort can be further explored in the open access HPA Database, www.proteinatlas.org.
In addition, the Cell Profiling facility offers researchers unique access to this antibody resource and large-scale protein profiling platforms. In this manner, we enable researchers to perform custom designed screens to for example validate and further explore hits from transcriptomics studies, small molecule screens or other related work within the field of drug discovery and disease.
The European Laboratory Research & Innovation Group
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