[Frontiers in Bioscience S4, 1078-1087 , January 1, 2012]

[Frontiers in Bioscience S4, 1078-1087 , January 1, 2012]

Pediatric proteomics: an introduction

1Department of Pediatrics, James H. Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN 37604

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Pediatric proteomics and medicine: 3.1. Pediatric proteomics is a branch of clinical proteomics; 3.2. Proteomics and systems biology; 3.3. Clinical proteomics, proteins and biological functions
4. "Omics" and the central dogma of molecular biology: 4.1. The original central dogma; 4.2. The updated central dogma; 4.3. Functional genomics
5. The complexity of human proteins: 5.1. What gives rise to an organism's complexity?; 5.2. Protein complexity, gene modularity and post-translational modifications
6. Why Proteomics and Transcriptomics?: 6.1 .The poor correlation between protein and mRNA abundance; 6.2 .mRNA sequence cannot predict protein levels or their posttranslational modifications
7. Proteomics provides insight into disease mechanisms
8. Expression proteomics and cell-map proteomics: 8.1. The intrinsic complexity of proteomics; 8.2. Expression proteomics
9. Advances in proteomic technology: 9.1. Gel electrophoresis; 9.2. Limitations of 2-D PAGE; 9.3. Mass spectrometry (MS), the enabling technology of proteomic; 9.4. MALDI, ESI and soft ionization; 9.5. MS and Bioinformatics; 9.6. MS based proteomics and MudPIT
10. Protein chips and personalized pediatric medicine: 10.1. Protein chips; 10.2. Future clinical potential
11. Summary
12. Acknowledgements
13. References

1. ABSTRACT

The overall goal of this series is to detail the paradigm shift that proteomics will bring to the practice of pediatric medicine and research. Proteomics is the global study of proteins in a biological system, tissue or bodily fluid. This first review will provide a brief overview of proteomics and describe its niche in the other "omics" of system biology. The underlying technology and methodology will be outlined as well as the obstacles that must be surmounted before pediatric proteomics is optimally useful for clinicians. The potential of proteomics in the area of personalized pediatric medicine will also be discussed since this is of particular clinical relevance. The second article in this series will focus on the application of proteomics to neonatology with particular emphasis on diseases where oxidative stress plays a key pathophysiological role.