Research in the Proteomics Group focuses on understanding the changes that occur in the cell proteome in response to various stimuli such as cytokines or pathogen-derived molecules, which alter the differentiation state of cells in the immune system or whose production characterizes various disease states. We are especially interested in large-scale absolute quantitative measurements of components in immune cell signaling networks. We will use the resulting large datasets, combined with the data generated by the high-throughput screening efforts of the Molecular and Cell Biology Group and the microarray/next-generation sequencing data from the Genomics and Immunology Groups, to create predictive models of molecular interactions using the software generated by the Computational Biology Group. The predictions of these models will in turn be employed to better understand biological responses at multiple scales of biological organization, including the cell, tissue, and, eventually, whole organism.

Our primary experimental approach to generating the necessary datasets is mass spectrometry, which we will employ together with other proteomic methods using state-of-the art equipment and technologies available in our laboratory and at the National Institutes of Health.