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Kick-off meeting for the Human Brain Proteome Project

22 May 2003 - The kick-off meeting of the Human Brain Proteome Project (HBPP) took place in Frankfurt on Monday, 28th of April 2003, under the patronage of the Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Proteomforschung (DGPF). The HBPP initiative is coordinated by Prof. Dr. Helmut E. Meyer, Medical Proteom-Center of the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, and Prof. Dr. Dr. Joachim Klose, Charite Berlin, Germany. Both possess plenty of experience with the German Brain Proteome Project that is granted by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the National Genome Research Network (NGFN).
 
The aim of this meeting was the determination of organisational details and further proceedings in order to establish an effective and competent network as well as to advance the understanding of severe brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, Multiple Sclerosis or Prion Diseases.
 
More than 20 scientists from Europe, Asia and America participated in this first meeting. After a warm welcome of the HUPO president Prof. Dr. Samir Hanash and the DGPF president Dr. Lottspeich, respectively, Dr. Hans-Michael Biehl (Projektträger Jülich, Germany) elucidated the German and European proteome projects with regard to the BMBF activities indicating that proteome research will definitely be a fixed part of the governmental funding.
 
Thereafter, Prof. Dr. Meyer gave a short summary about the proteome research status especially in respect to the attributes of the brain. Prof. Dr. Dr. Klose implemented this point of view introducing a concept of subfractioning the brain proteome and standardization of analysis. Prof. Dr. Jean Rossier (ESPCI, Paris) emphasized advantages and strategies of single cell proteome analysis while Dr. Danilo Tagle (NINDS, USA) presented recent activities of the National Institute of Health stressing that the integration of different scientific branches and easing accessibility of data bases. Closing the meeting, Prof. Meyer suggested a first draft of the prerequisites, priorities and development of the HBPP. The participants agreed to meet in the castle Mickeln, Düsseldorf, Germany, in the beginning of September to discuss suggestions and to define further steps.