NewS

Stacy Malaker is one of the three finalists selected to present their manuscripts during the manuscript competition in a dedicated plenary session at HUPO2024. A panel of experts will evaluate their talks to select the “Proteomics Highlight of the Year”. Stacy Malaker will be presenting her work: Glycoproteomic landscape and structural dynamics of TIM family immune checkpoints enabled by mucinase SmE. 

Dr. Malaker is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Yale University. Her laboratory is focused on establishing methods and technology to study mucins, a class of densely O-glycosylated extracellular proteins, by mass spectrometry. Additionally, the laboratory studies mucins in a biological context, since these proteins play integral, yet poorly understood, roles in numerous diseases. Prior to her appointment at Yale, she received her B.S. from the University of Michigan in Biochemistry and Anthropology-Zoology. Dr. Malaker then went on to receive her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Virginia in the laboratory of Professor Donald Hunt. She continued to investigate the role of aberrant glycosylation in cancer as an NIH postdoctoral fellow in Professor Carolyn Bertozzi’s laboratory at Stanford University before starting at Yale in 2021.

Chromosome Team Leadership
Good news: Drs. Allan Stensballe and Louise Bundgaard, both excellent scientists, will lead the Chromosome 2 team representing Denmark. Now all our chromosomes have a team!!!

C-HPP Workshops
Upcoming workshops for 2024 and 2025:

• 26^th C-HPP Workshop: (0.5 day), Dresden, Sunday 20^th October 2024, 9:00 AM – 14:00 PM (before HUPO Congress).
• 27^th C-HPP Workshop on the new Human Proteome Project Portal, Guangzhou LEDY Life and Health City, China, November 28 & 29th 2024.
• 28^th C-HPP Workshop: The HPP Grand Challenge, Saint-Malo, France, June 13-15, 2025 (before EUPA).

Elections in Dresden for C-HPP EC Members
Please send nominations for the following positions to the C-HPP Secretary General, Dr Peter Horvatovich (p.l.horvatovich@rug.nl).

1. Chris Overall will be stepping down as Chair of the C-HPP at the end of 2024, and we invite nominations for the new Chair.
2. Gilberto Domont is a current member, and we invite nominations to fill this position for three years starting in January 2025.
3. C-HPP Secretary General Dr Peter Horvatovich will be stepping down at the end of 2024, and we invite nominations to fill this position for three years starting in January 2025.
4. We are creating a new ECR position for the C-HPP EC, and we will elect in Dresden a new ECR to sit on the EC from January 2025 for 3 years. Please self nominate.
5. Election for a member-at-large of the C-HPP EC for three years starting in January 2025.

Our goal is to have equal female and male representation on the C-HPP EC.

Current C-HPP EC

• Christopher M. Overall, Canada (to December 31, 2024), Chair.
• Gong Zhang, China (to December 31, 2027), Co-Chair.
• Heeyoun Hwang, Korea (to December 31, 2028), Co-Chair.
• Peter Horvatovich, The Netherlands (to December 31, 2025), Secretary General.
• Gilberto Domont, Brazil (to December 31, 2024), Member-at-Large.
• Fernando Corrales, Spain (to December 31, 2025), Member-at-Large.
• Sergio Encarnación-Guevara, Mexico (to December 31, 2027), Member-at-Large.

November 18-19, 2024
Location: Aerial UTS Function Centre, Ultimo, Sydney, Australia
Organized By: Children Medical Research Institute, ProCan

Through this two-day meeting, internationally renowned experts in proteomics, genomics, cancer management, biomarker and drug discovery will share their progress towards addressing the challenges and opportunities of multi-omic data integration in cancer management, with a special focus on the role of proteomics in advancing biomarker development and drug discovery.

More details here....

Sunday, October 20th 19:30-22:30

Early career researchers and senior scientists are all welcome to join this exciting event, which aims to bridge digital, cultural, and continental gaps. The ECR Networking Evening provides a fantastic opportunity for early-stage researchers to meet, share, and connect with colleagues and senior researchers.

This year, the evening will feature a scenic boat ride around Dresden, offering stunning views, drinks, and a chance to mingle in a relaxed atmosphere. It's the perfect setting to network with peers and mentors from around the world.

Be ready to meet new people and participate in engaging activities!

Register here for the ECR Networking Evening and reserve your ticket now, as space is limited!

The manuscript competition is a unique opportunity for early career researchers to gain visibility in the proteomics community, as it serves as a platform to highlight the important contributions that postdoctoral fellows, young clinicians and junior faculty members make to the proteomics field. Three finalists have been selected to present their publications in a dedicated plenary session at HUPO 2024, where an expert committee will evaluate the oral presentations to determine the “Proteomics Highlight of the Year” by an ECR. Congratulations to all finalists:

1. Leyuan Li (Beijing Proteome Research Center, CN)- Revealing proteome-level functional redundancy in human gut microbiome using ultra-deep metaproteomics
2. Stacy Malaker (Yale University, USA) - Glycoproteomic landscape and structural dynamics of TIM family immune checkpoints enabled by mucinase SmE
3. Marc van Oostrum (Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Germany.) - The proteomic landscape of synaptic diversity across brain regions and cell types

The June HUPOST edition is out now! It’s packed with vital news and updates, including information on HUPO 2024 the IAB Spotlight, Council Elections, New Job Postings, ETC and ECR Activities, and more!

In this new monthly feature, we will be highlighting extraordinary HUPO volunteers who lead and support many of HUPO's various Committees, Initiatives and Working Groups. If you would like to volunteer with HUPO, please connect with the HUPO Office.

HUPO Marketing and Outreach Committee (MOC)

The MOC has been at work developing new ways to promote the HUPO mission, the visibility of proteomics within the scientific community and its popularization among the public, as well as gathering funding support. The MOC has been very successful in networking with other HUPO Committees and Initiatives and using a range of tools and activities. The MOC members are from different fields and backgrounds and at various career stages representing the diversity of HUPO.

Charlotte Hutchings is a third-year PhD student at the Cambridge Centre for Proteomics, University of Cambridge. She applies expression and subcellular spatial proteomics methods to study the effect of viral production, specifically that of adeno-associated viruses, on cells. Charlotte is also very interested in bioinformatics and big data which has led her to write and teach workflow publications and workshops. Having found a love for proteomics, Charlotte has become an active member of the community and acts as the student representative for the British Society for Proteome Research (BSPR), Vice Chair of Online Activities for the HUPO Early Career Researcher (ECR) Committee and has more recently become involved in the HUPO Marketing and Outreach (MOC) Committee.

Theodora Katsila is a Senior Researcher-Head of the Biomarker Discovery & Translational Research laboratory at the National Hellenic Research Foundation, Greece. Craving for brain teasers (and being loyal to her motto: from information to actionable insights), she is strongly interested in translational biomarkers and proteoform-based drug repurposing. Mining the chemical biology space, Theodora aims to catalyze the transition from serendipity-driven to data-driven translational precision medicine. This paradigm shift comes with a need for biomarker-guided trial design and patient-centric companion diagnostics. For this, Theodora applies mass spectrometry-based multi-omics and data science.

Conor McCafferty is a Program Manager at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, where he coordinates and oversees the body of cancer research performed at the institute and the adjoining Royal Children’s Hospital. He has worked with proteomic technologies to investigate biomarkers of disease and completed his PhD investigating the relationship between thrombosis and COVID-19 in children from the University of Melbourne in 2022, which included proteomic analysis of patients with different COVID-19 outcomes. Conor joined the HUPO Marketing and Outreach Committee in 2019 and additionally sits as a board director of the Australian Society for Medical Research. He has a passion for solving clinical challenges (particularly in pediatrics) and works to develop coordinated research and multi-omic strategies to improve clinical outcomes.

The Initiative for Model Organism Proteomics (iMOP) unveils an exciting webinar titled "Exploring New Model Organisms and Unraveling Protein Mysteries."

Mark your calendars for May 21st and get ready to explore the world of proteomics and learn how it's revolutionizing our understanding of molecular mechanisms in a range of new model organisms. Join them on this journey as they shed light on how these discoveries can boost human health, safeguard the environment, and preserve biodiversity. See further webinar details on the flyer below. 

Zoom Meeting Link Here

In a new feature of the monthly HUPOST newsletter, extraordinary HUPO volunteers who lead and support many of HUPO's various Committees, Initiatives and Working Groups, are highlighted.  If you would like to volunteer with HUPO, please connect with the HUPO Office.

HUPO Marketing and Outreach Committee (MOC)
The MOC has been at work developing new ways to promote the HUPO mission, the visibility of proteomics within the scientific community and its popularization among the public, as well as gathering funding support.  MOC members are from different fields and backgrounds and at various career stages representing the diversity of HUPO.

The May HUPOST features the following MOC volunteers:

Qian Zhao is an Associate Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK PolyU). She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Hong Kong in 2012 and then joined the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2017, she joined HK PolyU as an Assistant Professor in Chemical Proteomics. She currently serves as an Editorial Board member for Molecular & Cellular Proteomics and a council member in HUPO. Her research group investigates functional peptides with mass spectrometry, including non-canonical peptides translated from small open reading frames and immunopeptides. Qian holds the view that the peptidome, a subset of the proteome, holds significant promise. Her work is centered around creating new ways to find and understand these peptides, with the ultimate aim of using their potential to develop new treatments for diseases.

Nobuaki Takemori is a Senior Assistant Professor at Ehime University. He received his B.Sc. degree in Material Science in 1997 from Nagoya Institute of Technology (Japan) and his Ph.D. degree in Material Science in 2002 from Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Japan). After postdoctoral research from 2002 to 2009 in the US and Japan, he joined the faculty at Ehime University as a Research Assistant Professor in 2010 and was promoted to Senior Assistant Professor with tenure in 2012. He is currently a Council Member of the Human Proteome Organization (HUPO) and the Japanese Proteomics Society (JPrOS) and serves as the Chief Editor of Proteome Letters, the official journal of JPrOS.

His research group is focused on developing new proteomics technologies and their application to clinical biomarker discovery. In his own laboratory, he has developed an innovative method for the synthesis of stable isotope-labeled proteins using a wheat germ cell-free protein synthesis system in addition to establishing a high-throughput synthesis platform. Awarded the Young Investigator Award from JPrOS in 2018 for his pioneering work in the development of quantitative proteomics technologies using a wheat germ cell-free synthesis system, his technique has been extremely useful for the production of high-quality internal standard proteins in the quantitative analysis of targeted proteins by mass spectrometry, resulting in a unique impact in the field of quantitative proteomics. In recent years, he has also been actively engaged in the development of sample preparation techniques for top-down proteomics. He has successfully developed PEPPI-MS, a high-resolution fractionation technique for intact proteoforms using SDS-PAGE, and is now conducting research on top-down proteomics at high depth by combining PEPPI-MS with an ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry system.

Upendra Chalise is a postdoctoral fellow at Dr. Jop van Berlo's lab in the University of Minnesota, where he studies cardiovascular physiology after sterile cardiac injury such as myocardial infarction and transaortic constriction in murine model. He uses cellular and plasma proteomics techniques to identify markers that can predict future progression of cardiac remodeling. His graduate work has utilized various proteomic approaches in identifying and validation potential markers and functional targets to improve cardiac outcomes after myocardial infarction. He has continued his work in his postdoctoral training in modulating inflammatory and extracellular matrix proteins to prevent adverse cardiac remodeling and heart failure progression. He is actively working to regulate immune responses after cardiac injury through identification of protein targets. Upendra currently serves as a member of the HUPO Marketing and Outreach Committee and in the Trainee Advisory Sub Committee of the Cardiovascular section of the American Physiological Society. Besides cardiovascular research, Upendra is passionate about improving academia for trainees and actively advocates for changes within academia.