Events

University of Toronto Faculty Club, Toronto
 
The Ontario Genomics Institute (OGI), together with Génome Québec hosted the full-day steering workshop of the International Interactome Initiative (I³).  This workshop, organized by Drs. Benoit Coulombe (Institut de recherche cliniques de Montréal) and Tony Pawson (Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto), was in part supported by the OGI Genomics Capacity Building (GCB) workshop program and preceded the 8th annual HUPO (Human Proteome Organization) world congress in Toronto.  54 participants attended the workshop representing 19 different academic institutions, seven funding organizations, one technology and three pharmaceutical companies, and seven different countries.

I³ and its international steering committee was established by a group of Canadian, European and US scientists to mobilize the international community to map the human interactome. Understanding the human interactome, defined as the complete but highly complex set of interactions made by the molecular components of human cells, is considered an important scientific frontier of the post genomic era.  Protein-protein interactions, which represent a key aspect of the interactome,  are the basic building blocks of cellular signaling cascades and regulatory networks, and their dysfunction and misregulation often leads to disease.  Hence, understanding the interactome and its dynamic behavior will not only lead to increased knowledge of the basic mechanisms of biology but will also profoundly enhance our understanding of diseases and their origins.

I³ has proposed a two pronged approach.  One part of the initiative (Track I) aims to obtain a complete picture of all protein-protein interactions within one standard cell type.  This first interactome scan will provide a reference map for all interacting proteins.  The second part (Track II) of the initiative will take a focused look at the dynamic nature of protein interactions, focusing on sets of proteins, cell types and conditions, with particular disease relevance.

Key goals of the I³ steering committee workshop were:

• to discuss the overall project strategy with and receive recommendations from the research community and private sector (i.e. end-users);
• to come to agreement within the consortium on important technical and experimental questions such as bioinformatics data flow and exchange formats, cell lines, etc.; and,
• to present initial results and discuss extension of a pilot program that aims to establish feasibility and explore best practices for Track I (full interactome scan of a standard cell type) efforts.

The primary outcome from this workshop will be the submission of a Letter of Intent (LOI) to Genome Canada and equivalent provincial, federal, and/or international funding agencies.  The LOI will request funding to develop a comprehensive application that describes the I³ consortium in detail, and will ultimately lead to several funding opportunities for this exciting large scale project.