Clinical Proteomics for Diagnostics and Precision Medicine: Applications in the Post-Genome Era

While DNA is the information archive, the proteins do the work of the cell and constitute most of the cellular machinery. Functionally, nearly all of the FDA-approved drugs work by modulating protein expression and/or protein activity/location. Moreover, many of the biomarkers that are measured in the clinic for routine disease detection to more esoteric testing are proteins. This backdrop provides context to the exploding field of proteomics in the post-genome era; however, proteomics is constrained by technological and biochemical limitations: lack of a PCR-equivalent technology to amplify low-abundance proteins and relative analytical insensitivity of mass spectrometry, lability of proteins in vivo, and massive dynamic range and complexity of the human proteome.

To help deliver on the promise of clinical proteomics, we have developed new technologies that can amplify low-abundance proteins for discovery and point-of-care testing. We have also developed new types of protein arrays for precision medicine-based applications. Case studies of these technologies as applied to the bedside will be presented for breast cancers and infectious diseases to emphasize the clinical impact that could be achieved as well as highlight the global potential for incorporation into the early detection and precision medicine workflow.