Clinical Proteomics: towards personalized medicine and health

Traditionally, medicine relies on the patient's examination, medical history and available clinical parameters for the diagnosis of diseases and the selection of treatments. However, this practice is currently evolving with the emergence of new imaging techniques and high-throughput molecular sequencing that generate a large amounts of data per patient. These data can be converted to relevant clinical information allowing patient stratification and the deciphering of pathological mechanisms, thus advancing in the paradigm of personalized medicine. Among the molecular sequencing techniques, proteomics provides functional information about the activity of proteins, which is often crucial for the understanding of cell physiology. During the last decade, the development of the field has facilitated the characterization of the main mechanisms of cell signaling, and the deciphering of protein-protein interaction that are essential in gene regulation and that govern the different phenotypes observed in cells and tissues. In addition, the consolidation of proteomics technologies have enabled new large-scope applications for clinical and biomedical research in which hundreds of samples can be analyzed by mass spectrometry. These applications allow the identification and quantification of proteins in biological fluids, biopsies and animal models, as well as the analysis of post-translational modifications, interactions and intracellular localization of proteins, in order to find markers of disease, understand the pathological molecular mechanisms, and provide new treatments for patients. By bringing together the world leaders in proteomics and the local clinicians and researchers, this B-Debate aims to introduce new applications, developments and recent innovations of the proteomics field to the biomedical community, to empower clinicians and translational researchers with latest generation proteomics technologies for personalized medicine, and to promote enriching scientific discussions among academic and medical communities, biotechnology industry and local citizens to foster new collaborations and synergies. This B-Debate, an initiative of Biocat and Obra Social “la Caixa”, is co-organized by four major research institutes in Barcelona: Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Barcelona Science Park (PCB) and Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG). It will take place in two consecutive days with six different thematic sections, and it is designed to appeal biomedical and translational researchers at all stages of their scientific career, clinicians from the national health system, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry scientists, and policy makers, scientific journalists and engaged citizens.