Science Friday Podcast Recap: A Decade After the Genome, Scientists Map the 'Proteome'

Only a decade has passed since scientists finished determining the human genome that dwell in the trillions of cells that all people possess. Now, however, scientists are now looking to be able to better distinguish between different types of cells in the human body – and the answer lies in the proteins of a cell. Akhilesh Pandey of Johns Hopkins University discussed recent scientific studies that have been underway in order to create a “proteome” or map of the differing proteins throughout the cells of the human body. According to Pandey, proteins are considered the workhorses of the human body, as they are the source of almost all functions. The millions of proteins that reside within a cell are determined by the genome. Also, these proteins are only able to function once they are folded from their primary to their quaternary structure. Lastly, awareness of this proteome map may help us in curing certain diseases in order to understand what is abnormal, one must first discover the standard of normality set. This protein-mapping, according to Pandey, is the first piece of the puzzle for understanding what is normal.