TATRC is developing a portfolio of Proteomics and Genomics projects to benefit the military community. TATRC’s partners - universities, research centers, and industry - collaborate to further expand their research. Most of the research has focused on cancers, including breast, ovarian, cervical, colon, and lung cancers, and melanoma, lymphoma, and glioma.

Large tumor banks have been established at sponsored institutions to identify, catalogue and store tumor samples, as well as normal tissues, plasma, serum, and urine, for research protocols. Microarray analyses of cells from the tumor banks are being used to develop signatures to allow diagnosis and prognosis.

A functional genomics approach to patient management is being developed by obtaining oncogenomic signatures of human cancer specimens and linking this information to transcription profiles and primary xenograft cancer model data.

Proteomics is being performed to identify markers for early detection of cancer and to identify new therapeutic targets. These techniques will result in the rational design of personalized cancer therapeutics.

Bioinformatics plays a pivotal role in ensuring that these discoveries are statistically valid. To this end, specialized software and databases are being developed, disseminated, and used to manage de-identified patient information and research data. In addition, new proteomics and genomics methodologies, instrumentation, and resources are being developed.

Finally, an effort to apply proteomic and genomic research to prokaryotic models, particularly those causing infectious diseases, has been established to examine multiple organisms, strains, virulence factors, and treatments.

TATRC’s goal for the Proteomics/Genomics Portfolio is to support these efforts and to expand this portfolio into other areas of disease that have direct impact on military and prior military personnel.