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Joshua LaBaer

Publications and source records attributed to Joshua LaBaer.

18 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2026

Immunoproteomic Profiling of Autoantibodies and Antibodies against Infectious Agents in Autoimmune Diseases.

Prior research investigated limited antibody sets within individual autoimmune diseases. Using the Nucleic-Acid Programmable Protein Array platform, we measured antibodies against 280 human, 40 viral, and 15 bacterial antigens in serum from 237 patients with 8 autoimmune diseases, including autoimmune gastritis (AG), autoimmune thyroiditis (AT), celiac disease (CD), idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM), type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Sjögren's disease (SjD), and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and 112 controls. Candidate antibodies were identified by combining Firth logistic regression and machine learning. We identified disease-specific antibodies, ranging from 3 in IIM to 13 in SLE for IgG and 1 in CD to 13 in AG for IgA. Additionally, 63 IgG and 44 IgA antibodies were shared across two or more diseases. Notably, two IgG autoantibodies overlapped in up to five diseases: directed against STNM4 (SLE, SjD, T1D, CD, and RA) and TRIM21 (SLE, SjD, IIM, CD, and RA); and three IgA antibodies in up to seven diseases: directed against H1N1 Influenza A virus NP (IIM, SjD, AG, T1D, CD, RA, and AT) and Coxsackievirus B3MK012537 and Enterovirus C PVgp1 (IIM, SjD, AG, T1D, CD, SLE, and RA). These findings underscore the potential of antibody profiling in autoimmune disease characterization and biomarker discovery.

Humans↗
PubMed2005

DNA polymorphism detector: an automated tool that searches for allelic matches in public databases for discrepancies found in clone or cDNA sequences.

SUMMARY: DNA polymorphism detector (DPD) is a new web application developed to help automate the process of cDNA clone validation. DPD identifies and highlights discrepancies between any cDNA clone sequence and its expected reference sequence. To determine if these differences correspond to natural genetic polymorphisms (versus artifacts introduced during clone production or evaluation), DPD uses the discrepancies, along with flanking sequences, to search GenBank for identical matching strings. If matching DNA sequences are found, DPD verifies that they are from the same gene. The application then reports the discrepancy as a polymorphism along with the corresponding GenBank reference information. AVAILABILITY: DPD is currently hosted by the Harvard Institute of Proteomics at http://www.hip.harvard.edu

Cloning, Molecular↗
PubMed2005

Protein microarrays as tools for functional proteomics.

Protein microarrays present an innovative and versatile approach to study protein abundance and function at an unprecedented scale. Given the chemical and structural complexity of the proteome, the development of protein microarrays has been challenging. Despite these challenges there has been a marked increase in the use of protein microarrays to map interactions of proteins with various other molecules, and to identify potential disease biomarkers, especially in the area of cancer biology. In this review, we discuss some of the promising advances made in the development and use of protein microarrays.

Protein Array Analysis↗
PubMed2005

Emerging tools for real-time label-free detection of interactions on functional protein microarrays.

The availability of extensive genomic information and content has spawned an era of high-throughput screening that is generating large sets of functional genomic data. In particular, the need to understand the biochemical wiring within a cell has introduced novel approaches to map the intricate networks of biological interactions arising from the interactions of proteins. The current technologies for assaying protein interactions--yeast two-hybrid and immunoprecipitation with mass spectrometric detection--have met with considerable success. However, the parallel use of these approaches has identified only a small fraction of physiologically relevant interactions among proteins, neglecting all nonprotein interactions, such as with metabolites, lipids, DNA and small molecules. This highlights the need for further development of proteome scale technologies that enable the study of protein function. Here we discuss recent advances in high-throughput technologies for displaying proteins on functional protein microarrays and the real-time label-free detection of interactions using probes of the local index of refraction, carbon nanotubes and nanowires, or microelectromechanical systems cantilevers. The combination of these technologies will facilitate the large-scale study of protein interactions with proteins as well as with other biomolecules.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Self-assembling protein microarrays.

Protein microarrays provide a powerful tool for the study of protein function. However, they are not widely used, in part because of the challenges in producing proteins to spot on the arrays. We generated protein microarrays by printing complementary DNAs onto glass slides and then translating target proteins with mammalian reticulocyte lysate. Epitope tags fused to the proteins allowed them to be immobilized in situ. This obviated the need to purify proteins, avoided protein stability problems during storage, and captured sufficient protein for functional studies. We used the technology to map pairwise interactions among 29 human DNA replication initiation proteins, recapitulate the regulation of Cdt1 binding to select replication proteins, and map its geminin-binding domain.

Cell Cycle Proteins↗
PubMed2004

Cooperation of the ErbB2 receptor and transforming growth factor beta in induction of migration and invasion in mammary epithelial cells.

MCF10A mammary epithelial cells form growth-arrested structures when cultured in three-dimensional basement membrane gels. Activation of the receptor tyrosine kinase ErbB2 induces formation of proliferative structures that share properties with noninvasive early stage lesions. We conducted a genetic screen to identify cDNAs that can cooperate with ErbB2 to induce migration in these cells, with the hypothesis that they would represent candidate "second hits" in the development of invasive breast carcinomas. We found that expression of transforming growth factor (TGF)beta1 and TGFbeta3 in cells expressing activated ErbB2 induces migration in transwell chambers and invasive behavior in both basement membrane cultures and invasion chambers. The ability of ErbB2 to cooperate with TGFbeta correlated with sustained, elevated activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (Erk)-mitogen-activated protein kinase. Pharmacological reduction of Erk activity inhibited the cooperative effect of TGFbeta and ErbB2 on migration and expression of activated Erk kinase was sufficient to cooperate with TGFbeta to induce migration and invasion, suggesting that sustained Erk activation is critical for ErbB2/TGFbeta cooperation. In addition, we show that costimulation of ErbB2 and TGFbeta induces autocrine secretion of factors that are sufficient to induce migration, but not invasion, by means of both epidermal growth factor receptor-dependent and -independent processes. These results support the role of TGFbeta as a pro-invasion factor in the progression of breast cancers with activated ErbB2 and suggest that activation of the Erk and epidermal growth factor receptor pathways are key in mediating these events.

Breast Neoplasms↗
PubMed2004

Protein expression clone repositories for functional proteomics.

The information generated from the sequence of the human genome has inspired efforts to systematically develop organized collections of human cDNA clones for use in expression screens in mammalian cells. These high-throughput cloning initiatives offer significant advantages over the cDNA libraries that have been used in the past, including greater experimental flexibility, immediate identification of hits, information regarding all tested proteins (even for those giving no response) and eventually more comprehensive coverage. Some of the lessons learned and the considerations that underlie the creation of genome-wide cDNA repositories are discussed here. Although still inchoate, these resources are already impacting the manner in which high-throughput functional screens are performed.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Bacterial cell-free system for high-throughput protein expression and a comparative analysis of Escherichia coli cell-free and whole cell expression systems.

Sixty-three proteins of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the size range of 18-159 kDa were tested for expression in a bacterial cell-free system. Fifty-one of the 63 proteins could be expressed and partially purified under denaturing conditions. Most of the expressed proteins showed yields greater than 500 ng after a single affinity purification step from 50 microl in vitro protein synthesis reactions. The in vitro protein expression plus purification in a 96-well format and analysis of the proteins by SDS-PAGE were performed by one person in 4 h. A comparison of in vitro and in vivo expression suggests that despite lower yields and less pure protein preparations, bacterial in vitro protein expression coupled with single-step affinity purification offers a rapid, efficient alternative for the high-throughput screening of clones for protein expression and solubility.

Bacterial Proteins↗
PubMed2004

High-throughput generation of P. falciparum functional molecules by recombinational cloning.

Large-scale functional genomics studies for malaria vaccine and drug development will depend on the generation of molecular tools to study protein expression. We examined the feasibility of a high-throughput cloning approach using the Gateway system to create a large set of expression clones encoding Plasmodium falciparum single-exon genes. Master clones and their ORFs were transferred en masse to multiple expression vectors. Target genes (n = 303) were selected using specific sets of criteria, including stage expression and secondary structure. Upon screening four colonies per capture reaction, we achieved 84% cloning efficiency. The genes were subcloned in parallel into three expression vectors: a DNA vaccine vector and two protein expression vectors. These transfers yielded a 100% success rate without any observed recombination based on single colony screening. The functional expression of 95 genes was evaluated in mice with DNA vaccine constructs to generate antibody against various stages of the parasite. From these, 19 induced antibody titers against the erythrocytic stages and three against sporozoite stages. We have overcome the potential limitation of producing large P. falciparum clone sets in multiple expression vectors. This approach represents a powerful technique for the production of molecular reagents for genome-wide functional analysis of the P. falciparum genome and will provide for a resource for the malaria resource community distributed through public repositories.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Many paths to many clones: a comparative look at high-throughput cloning methods.

The creation of genome-scale clone resources is a difficult and costly process, making it essential to maximize the efficiency of each step of clone creation. In this review, we compare the available commercial and open-source recombinational cloning methods with regard to their use in creating comprehensive open reading frame (ORF) clone collections with an emphasis on the properties requisite to use in a high-throughput setting. The most efficient strategy to the creation of ORF clone resources is to build a master clone collection that serves as a quality validated source for producing collections of expression clones. We examine the methods for recombinational cloning available for both the creation of master clones and their conversion into expression clones. Alternative approaches to creating clones involving mixing of cloning methods, including gap-repair cloning, are also explored.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Proteome-scale purification of human proteins from bacteria.

The completion of the human genome project and the development of high-throughput approaches herald a dramatic acceleration in the pace of biological research. One of the most compelling next steps will be learning the functional roles of all proteins. Achievement of this goal depends in part on the rapid expression and isolation of proteins at large scale. We exploited recombinational cloning to facilitate the development of methods for the high-throughput purification of human proteins. cDNAs were introduced into a master vector from which they could be rapidly transferred into a variety of protein expression vectors for further analysis. A test set of 32 sequence-verified human cDNAs of various sizes and activities was moved into four different expression vectors encoding different affinity-purification tags. By means of an automatable 2-hr protein purification procedure, all 128 proteins were purified and subsequently characterized for yield, purity, and steps at which losses occurred. Under denaturing conditions when the His6 tag was used, 84% of samples were purified. Under nondenaturing conditions, both the glutathione S-transferase and maltose-binding protein tags were successful in 81% of samples. The developed methods were applied to a larger set of 336 randomly selected cDNAs. Sixty percent of these proteins were successfully purified under denaturing conditions and 82% of these under nondenaturing conditions. A relational database, FLEXProt, was built to compare properties of proteins that were successfully purified and proteins that were not. We observed that some domains in the Pfam database were found almost exclusively in proteins that were successfully purified and thus may have predictive character.

ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Analysis of genomic and proteomic data using advanced literature mining.

High-throughput technologies, such as proteomic screening and DNA micro-arrays, produce vast amounts of data requiring comprehensive analytical methods to decipher the biologically relevant results. One approach would be to manually search the biomedical literature; however, this would be an arduous task. We developed an automated literature-mining tool, termed MedGene, which comprehensively summarizes and estimates the relative strengths of all human gene-disease relationships in Medline. Using MedGene, we analyzed a novel micro-array expression dataset comparing breast cancer and normal breast tissue in the context of existing knowledge. We found no correlation between the strength of the literature association and the magnitude of the difference in expression level when considering changes as high as 5-fold; however, a significant correlation was observed (r = 0.41; p = 0.05) among genes showing an expression difference of 10-fold or more. Interestingly, this only held true for estrogen receptor (ER) positive tumors, not ER negative. MedGene identified a set of relatively understudied, yet highly expressed genes in ER negative tumors worthy of further examination.

Abstracting and Indexing↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The sentinel within: exploiting the immune system for cancer biomarkers.

The release of proteins from tumors triggers an immune response in cancer patients. These tumor antigens arise from several mechanisms including tumor-specific alterations in protein expression, mutation, folding, degradation, or intracellular localization. Responses to most tumor antigens are rarely observed in healthy individuals, making the response itself a biomarker that betrays the presence of underlying cancer. Antibody immune responses show promise as clinical biomarkers because antibodies have long half-lives in serum, are easy to measure, and are stable in blood samples. However, our understanding of the specificity and the impact of the immune response in early stages of cancer is limited. The immune response to cancer, whether endogenous or driven by vaccines, involves highly specific T lymphocytes (which target tumor-derived peptides bound to self-MHC proteins) and B lymphocytes (which generate antibodies to tumor-derived proteins). T cell target antigens have been identified either by expression cloning from tumor cDNA libraries, or by prediction based on patterns of antigen expression ("reverse immunology"). B cell targets have been similarly identified using the antibodies in patient sera to screen cDNA libraries derived from tumor cell lines. This review focuses on the application of recent advances in proteomics for the identification of tumor antigens. These advances are opening the door for targeted vaccine development, and for using immune response signatures as biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and monitoring.

Antigens, Neoplasm↗
PubMedDate not supplied

So, you want to look for biomarkers (introduction to the special biomarkers issue).

The burgeoning field of proteomics plays a powerful and relevant role in the discovery of biomarkers, which are biometric measurements that convey information about the biological condition of the subject being tested. Biomarkers have changed the manner in which we diagnose disease, monitor the effect of therapy, classify disease, detect toxicity, and develop new drugs. The central part that proteins command in both disease etiology and treatment make them prime biomarker candidates. Indeed, the majority of clinical tests in use today measure proteins. This perspective introduces the Journal of Proteome Research Special Issue on Proteomics and Biomarkers. It outlines the major applications of biomarkers, discusses the basics of statistically assessing them and considers the crucial choice of sample type. Central considerations of biomarker discovery and validation, particularly with respect to their intended clinical and research applications, are highlighted.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Genomics, proteomics, and the new paradigm in biomedical research.

This article is based on the keynote address that introduced the third biennial Asan Medical Center-Harvard Medical International Symposium "Genetics and Proteomics: Impact on Medicine and Health" that took place in Seoul, Korea, July 3-4, 2001. In his address, the author summarized exciting achievements in the field of genomics and introduced the related and emerging field of proteomics. By using industrialized high-throughput approaches, genomics and proteomics are dramatically accelerating the pace of biological research. They have started a scientific revolution whose impact will range from elucidating the structure of our chromosomes to providing powerful new tools for the study of disease; and from understanding human evolutionary history to novel applications in the medicine of the future. The author's overview highlighted the recent history of the two fields and laid the foundation for the rest of the symposium presentations.

Biomedical Research↗