CeBiTec Distinguished Lecture

 date  

Monday, January 25th 2010, 17 c.t.

 location  

ZiF Plenary Hall

 speaker  

Prof. Dr. Michael Hecker

Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald, Institut für Mikrobiologie, Greifswald, Germany

 title  

From the blueprint of life to life – Physiological proteomics of Gram-positive bacteria

    In 1995 the first complete genome sequence of a living organism, the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae was published. The genome sequence, however, is only the “blueprint of life”, not life itself. Functional genomics is required to transfer the blueprint of life to cell function. Because the proteins are the “main players of life”, proteomics is required to bring “the virtual life of the genes to the real life of the proteins”.
In the presentation the almost complete protein inventory of simple model organisms with the majority of proteins synthesized is presented. Life, however, is more than a “mixture of proteins”: Proteins are modified, damaged and repaired and finally degraded. Proteomics technologies can be used to follow the fate of single proteins from “birth to a death” at a proteome wide scale. It will be shown that software packages allowing a computer-assisted evaluation of protein gels are valuable tools to characterize the proteome of a living cell.
Finally, it will be demonstrated that quantitative proteomic data (number of protein molecules per cell) complemented by transcriptomics and metabolomics data will be used to come to a comprehensive understanding of cell physiology.
 host  

Prof. Dr. Alfred Pühler