This Proteomics Center represents an interdisciplinary effort to explore and converge results from 4 different platform technologies that analyze intracellular and secreted blood cell proteins related to systemic autoimmune disease processes. A main component of the Center is the development of relational software and statistical analysis regimens that will allow the comparison and correlation of different datasets generated by these diverse technologies.

Each platform employs equipment that is familiar to nearly all academic research centers, including fluorescence activated cell sorters (FACS), robotic microarray printers and scanners, and microfabrication design for capillary electrophoresis equipment.

We are applying this approach to tractable animal models of two distinct autoimmune diseases, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, a disease mediated predominantly by B lymphocytes) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA, a disease mediated predominantly by T lymphocytes). Later years of the proposal will focus on the study of biological specimens derived from human patients as clinical samples that are clinically relevant manifestations of autoimmune disease represented by the disease models.