This major advance is the result of a decade of sustained efforts by the international community, including the production, analysis and re-analysis of proteomic data. This international work will serve as a basis for applications diagnostic, prognostic, therapeutic and are the preamble to the development of the precision medicine.

In 2010, on the occasion of its annual congress held in Sidney (Australia), the Human Proteome Organization (HUPO), gave the starting signal of the Human Proteome Project (HPP). It is a global project that aims to characterize all the proteins encoded by the human genome. In this context, each country has adopted a chromosome (chromosome 14 for France). This international effort to accurately and on a large scale characterization of proteins in various human organs, cells and biological fluids could not have achieved its goals without sharing data between “ Chromosome teams », The definition and adoption of very strict Guidelines in mass spectrometry and a Quality Assurance environment. Over the past ten years, the research teams involved in this project have been able to draw on key HPP resources such as the Human Protein Atlas (Sweden), PeptideAtlas and MassIVE (USA) and neXtProt (Switzerland) knowledge bases. . A very rigorous analysis then re-analysis of the data produced by the international proteomics community made it possible to characterize more than 90% of the human proteome. Genes are an information medium and as such have no biological function. On the other hand, they code for proteins which they carry functions and play an essential role in physiology.

The knowledge acquired within the framework of the HPP is essential to discern the role of the proteome in health and pathologies.

The French contribution (Chromosome team 14) was particularly significant with in particular the characterization of nearly 300 Missing proteins from human sperm samples. It involves, under the coordination of Charles PINEAU (Inserm, Rennes), the resources and know-how of the national proteomics infrastructure ProFi (Grenoble, Strasbourg, Toulouse) and the Protim core facility (Reindeer).

The mission of the Human Proteome Project is to re-analyze and integrate the proteomic data produced by the community specializing in the field according to particularly rigorous processes, thus providing a better molecular understanding of the dynamic nature of the proteome, including all its physiological modifications and its implications in pathological processes. This mission aligns with HUPO's motto "translate the code of life", by providing crucial information that genomics alone cannot provide. The completion of the Human Proteome Project will improve our understanding of human molecular and cellular biology at the service of the medicine of the future and of patients. This international work serves as a basis for diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic applications and is the essential preamble to the development of precision medicine.

In parallel with this event and for illustrate the innovations and major progress made by the scientific community, HUPO has created a video chronologically retracing key events in the field of proteomics. It is accessible to researchers and the general public www.hupo.org/Proteomics-Timeline.