If researchers can look at a sample of a patient's blood and immediately see what the proteins are doing and what those proteins represent, researchers can predict disease on the spot with 100 percent accuracy. But it's much richer and harder to characterize than the genome. To know the function of proteins is no simple task. While humans have approximately 100,000 genes, researchers say there are probably at least 10 times that number of proteins, the molecules that carry out the instructions of genes. Plus, proteins can behave in wildly different ways depending on whether they're acting on their own or in cooperation with other proteins.
Proteomics is suddenly a burgeoning business for life science companies.
About one proteomics startup surfaces every week, according to Martin. Scimagix , Oxford GlycoSciences and MDS Proteomics are just a few of the key players. With the incredible amount of information presented in the human proteome, there should be room for everyone. Applied announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to ship Oxford GlycoSciences its brand new machine, the Tof Tof, in exchange for feedback on its performance. Oxford will receive its first machine in early 2001, and Celera will get its own machine to test out in about a month.