HPP launch tempered by GFC realities

Professor Mark Baker, co-chair of HUPO (Human Proteome Organisation)2010 committee and chair of proteomics at Macquarie University, has admitted that the Human Proteome Project (HPP) would have been further down the track today if it weren’t for the global financial crisis.

“There really has been no money for major, big science projects,” he told ALS. “The GFC has definitely slowed down funding.”

The HPP was officially launched in Sydney yesterday as part of the annual 10th Annual HUPO ( Human Proteome Organisation ) World Congress being held this week. Some 1100 delegates from all over the world attended congress to listen to a who’s who of global proteomics experts talk about the future of the field for medical research and the key challenges which lie ahead.

Baker said that while 60-70 percent of the human proteome has so far been accounted for, much of this represents the low hanging fruit and that much of the hard grind is still yet to come. “The last 25 percent is going to be very hard”

Which makes the need for government and private sector money all the more urgent.

However, compared to the Human Genome Project (HGP)support for the HPP has been rather poor, with the project progressing in a rather ad hoc manner, heavily reliant on good will and good luck. And the GFC has only made the situation worse.

“This is despite the fact that between 95 and 98 percent of drugs on the market today have proteins as their target,” Baker said. In addition, proteomics in its short history, has already made a number of important contributions to the field of diagnostics. But once agian, more money is needed.

Over the next few it is hoped that further breakthroughs will help to raise the profile of proteomics and attract much needed research funding.

As for Australia and its role in the HPP, the choice of Sydney as the project’s launch provided a rare opportunity for the country to host some of the world’s top names in biomedical research while also blowing its own medical research trumpet.

“Australia would have been lucky if the guys who did the genome even came here [ to Australia ] on holidays,” Baker said.

No doubt some of the HUPO delegates aboard last Thursday night’s Sydney Harbour cruise-cum-Australian-wine-tasting shindig would have been shaking their heads in disbelief at the thought.