In the effort, 93.5% of the proteins encoded by the human genome were identified.
UNAM Participates in the international initiative Human Proteome Project, which seeks to identify, characterize and localize the proteins encoded by the human genome. Chromosome Centric Human Protein Project (C-HPP),
Scientists collaborating around the world, from 13,588 to 18,467, identified 25 percent of the total protein in the 12 years of operation of the project, yielding 93.5 percent of the human protein.
This is its great quality. “In addition to knowing how these proteins are expressed, We also know how they behaveWhat modifications do they have,” said researcher Sergio Manuel Encarnación Guevara, founder and head of the proteomics laboratory of UNAM’s Center for Genomic Sciences (CCG), headquarters of the Mexican consortium that intervenes in the World Organization Human Proteome Project (HUPO). , for its abbreviation in English).
HUPO’s C-HPP, also known as Doctorate in Biomedical Research, is made up of a consortium of 25 groups that bring together more than 400 scientists from 20 countries whose mission is to study each of the 24 human chromosomes and the mitochondrial genome. To do. ., especially protein or gene products.
“The purpose is Find rigorous evidence for all encoded proteins By human genome. That is, if we have more than 19,500 genes, find at least one of each of these proteins in some part of a human cell or tissue,” said the member, also a National System of Researchers Level III member.
This work started in 2011 and the National University joined in 2018. Mexican scientists, together with colleagues from Canada, the United States and Brazil – the only ones to collaborate on the American continent – have focused on identifying the proteins and assigning them functions. Chromosome 19.
“When we started working with this chromosome, there were 16.6 percent unknown proteins, that is, It was not known what protein that percentage of genes encoded., Currently about 5.5 percent is left. We have made important progress and this has been greatly contributed by the Mexican consortium,” the expert said.
The project is scheduled to be finished in 2028, “The challenge we face is significant because it is becoming increasingly difficult to detect the proteins that remain, because we have to do this in less studied situations, such as in rare diseases, because that is probably where we will find expression of that gene. And its product: protein,” explained the university student.