A major post-genome objective is to understand and exploit the proteome - the collection of proteins encoded by the genome and which carry out all cellular functions - including the expression, localisation, actions, interactions, modifications, and structure of all the proteins. Since defects in protein can lead directly to disease, a full understanding of the human proteome is of key importance for the future of healthcare and personalised medicine. One means to achieve proteome analysis is through the use of highly specific binders as probes, together with dedicated tools and methods for their use. This is known as affinity proteomics. In order to make this possible on a genome-wide scale, it is essential to create a comprehensive, standardised binder collection.

Objectives

• Establishing a European resource of highly characterised, quality-controlled affinity binding reagents for detection of all human proteins
• Providing binder-based tools to explore protein expression in health and disease
• Implementing standardised quality control criteria and procedures for affinity reagents
• establishing comprehensive open access databases with standardised information on quality control, to allow users the full and reliable information and access to resources.

The objectives were achieved through a range of networking activities, covering resources, tools, applications, bioinformatics and databases, and forward planning. Although the project officially finished in May 2010, the ProteomeBinders consortium will remain a European and international voice advocating the establishment of a comprehensive infrastructure resource of binding molecules for detection of the human proteome, together with tools for their use and applications in studying proteome function and organisation. Following on from the planning stage that ProteomeBinders was, two EC FP7 projects, AffinityProteome and AFFINOMICS are now running, carrying out large-scale binder generation.