The successful sequencing of the genomes of humans and other organisms has led to a series of new biological fields. First came genomics, the study of the relationship between DNA sequences and the genes for which they code. Further down the line, scientists see the emergence of cellomics, metabolomics, and other "omic" technologies. But today, life scientists focus most closely on proteomics, the study of all the proteins in a cell or tissue. The popularity of proteomics reflects the centrality of proteins in life science research. "It's the protein that is the business end of any biological system," says Jerry Becker, head of protein expression and purification at Roche Applied Science. As a result, the field promises significant applications. "There's a huge potential for researchers to correlate diseases and function with differences in protein abundance," says Richard Cumming, vice president product management for protein analysis at Amersham Biosciences. Adds Deb Chakravarti, Beckman professor and director of proteomics at the Keck Graduate Institute: "The potential of proteomics is to deliver unmet needs in medicine." Chakravarti also edits a new journal, Current Proteomics, published by Bentham Science Publishers. Its debut illustrates the growth of interest in the field. "There are four or five specialized proteomics journals," Chakravarti explains. "I thought a journal that publishes review articles was paramount. It is a single repository for various areas of proteomics."
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