This Proteomics Center brings together a highly interdisciplinary team to develop innovative platform technologies that analyze intracellular and secreted blood cell proteins related to systemic disease processes. This Center proposes analysis of the blood components in autoimmune disease, specifically focusing on systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Three projects will each develop and apply novel proteomics technologies to study aberrances in the blood components in murine and human SLE and RA. In addition, novel analysis algorithms to integrate and analyze related but disparate megasets of proteomic, genomic, and clinical data will be developed. A strength of this proposal is the novel applications of existing technologies to relevant biological questions, including polychromatic flow cytometry for simultaneous measurement of multiple kinase states, microfluidic and capillary electrophoresis-based proteomic analysis of cytokines and autoantibodies, and planar protein arrays for analysis of autoantibody responses. Technology and method development tightly coupled to biological applications is a strength of this Center. The systematic acquisition of large amounts of data related to connective tissue diseases is a valuable new approach which may lead to new advances in diagnosis and treatment.
