Invention and introduction of the high-throughput robot
imaging technology MELC/TIS toponomics has revolutionized the
field of proteomics/functional genomics, because it enables the
investigator to locate and decipher functional protein networks
(toponome) consisting of thousands of different protein clusters in a
single cell or tissue section (Proteomics Research Highlight ?Mapping
togetherness?. Nature 443, 12 Oct 2006).
The technology has proven to
solve key problems in biology and therapy research:
(i) it has uncovered a new cellular transdifferentiation mechanism of
vascular cells giving rise to myogenic stem cells in situ, a finding
that has led to efficient cell therapy models of muscle disorders;
(ii) it has discovered a new target protein in amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis by hierarchical protein network analysis, a finding that has
been confirmed by a mouse KO model;
(iii) it has uncovered a lead target protein in tumour cells
that controls cell polarization/metastasis, and
(iv) it has found a new target protein that controls chronic neuropathic
pain, a finding that has been confirmed by an independent KO mouse model.
Based on these proofs of principle, an international initiative has been
launched to systematically decipher the human protein network code
across major cell types and human diseases, particularly in
cancer.
.
The human TOPONOME project: translating the cellular protein network code (Toponome) into efficient therapies
Lecturer:
HD Dr. Walter Schubert
Dates:
13:00ct, R335-G29
Additional Information:
Short Biography
Walter Schubert is head of the Molecular Pattern Recognition Research (MPRR) group at the Medical Faculty of the Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany, and guest Professor for Toponomics at the Max-Planck-CAS (CAS-MPG) partner Institute for computational biology, Shanghai, China. Walter Schubert has studied medicine at the universities of Aachen and Bonn, Germany, and has led the neuromuscular diagnostic center at the university of Bonn.
He has invented and developed during his clinical work the toponome imaging robot technology MELC/TIS in 1990 (to decipher the protein networks in humans), is co-initiator of the course of studies in computervisualistics (CV) at Magdeburg university (MDU), and teaches human biology for students in CV and medicine at the MDU. Walter Schubert holds many patents, has received several national and international awards and honours, such as the american ISAC best paper award 2008 (for the three symbol code of organized proteomes, ?toponome?), and has launched the human toponome project aiming at the functional decoding of the protein networks in humans.
He is keynote speaker at international congresses (presenting the human toponome project), invited distinguished lecturer at the Case Western Reserve University (2010), and member of several american and european editorial and scientific advisory boards. WS chaired three interdisciplinary national joint projects of the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft and the BMBF (at MDU, and transnational)
connecting engineering, informatics, medicine and cell biology in the
filed of toponomics. The work of the MPRR group and coworkers has been acknowledged by a Research Highlight ?Mapping togetherness? (Nature 443, p 609, 2006).
