Marc Wilkins (geneticist)

Last updated

Marc R. Wilkins
NationalityAustralian
Alma mater Macquarie University
Known for proteome
Scientific career
Institutions University of New South Wales
Doctoral advisor Keith Williams

Marc R. Wilkins is an Australian scientist who is credited with the defining the concept of the proteome. [1] Wilkins is a Professor in the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.

Contents

Wilkins coined the term proteome in 1994 whilst developing the concept as a PhD student at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, describing it as the 'PROTein complement expressed by a genOME'. [2] The term is a generalisation of the concept of the genome to encompass the set of all proteins that can be produced through the genome through alternative splicing and post-transcriptional modification of messenger RNA. [3]

Career

Wilkins held a post-doctoral fellowship from 1995–1997 at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, working with Prof Denis Hochstrasser and Dr Amos Bairoch. He co-developed many of the protein analysis tools available on the ExPASy web server. He subsequently served as a senior post-doctoral fellow in the Australian Proteome Analysis Facility, which was established by the Australian Government in 1995 as the world's first dedicated proteome research centre. [4]

In 1997 he co-edited the first book on proteomics, 'Proteome Research: New Frontiers in Functional Genomics' (Wilkins et al. (eds), Springer Verlag), which sold more than 4,000 copies. [5]

He was a co-founder of the proteomics company Proteome Systems Ltd. It was established in January 1999, and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2004. Dr Wilkins worked in Proteome Systems full-time for 6 years as leader of its bioinformatics Research and Development team then as Head of Proteomics. It was awarded IBM's "Rookie of the Year Award" for companies in the Asia-Pacific region, in 2003. Proteome Systems was renamed Tyrian Diagnostics [6] and ultimately divested its IP. In 2007, Wilkins co-founded the regenerative medicine company, Regeneus. [7] This company has developed treatments for osteoarthritis using adult stem cells, which are now in clinical trials.

Wilkins is currently a Professor of Systems Biology at the University of New South Wales, [8] and is the director of the Systems Biology Initiative [9] and the Ramaciotti Centre for Genomics. [10] He has published more than 200 research papers and book chapters. [11] His current research concerns the role of protein methylation in the eukaryotic cell, the use of crosslinking mass spectrometry (XL-MS) for proteome-scale analysis of protein interaction networks (the interactome) and the bioinformatic analysis of next-generation sequencing data. As part of the koala genome consortium, his team did all PacBio long-read sequencing and then Falcon-based assembly to generate the most complete and contiguous marsupial genome to date. [12]

In 2012, Wilkins was awarded the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology's Beckman Coulter Discovery Science Award. [13] This prize is awarded to a member for distinguished contributions to the field of biochemistry and molecular biology. The University of New South Wales awarded Wilkins a Doctor of Science (D. Sc.) in 2018.

Recently, he has enjoyed collaborating on the Human Proteome Project (published 2020) and the Human RNA Atlas Project (published 2021).

Related Research Articles

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The proteome is the entire set of proteins that is, or can be, expressed by a genome, cell, tissue, or organism at a certain time. It is the set of expressed proteins in a given type of cell or organism, at a given time, under defined conditions. Proteomics is the study of the proteome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proteomics</span> Large-scale study of proteins

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leroy Hood</span> American biologist (born 1938)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Omics</span> Suffix in biology

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Regulome refers to the whole set of regulatory components in a cell. Those components can be regulatory elements, genes, mRNAs, proteins, and metabolites. The description includes the interplay of regulatory effects between these components, and their dependence on variables such as subcellular localization, tissue, developmental stage, and pathological state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institute for Systems Biology</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macquarie University Faculty of Science and Engineering</span>

The Faculty of Science and Engineering is a constituent body of Macquarie University. The Faculty offers undergraduate and postgraduate coursework and research degree programs and is home to a number of internationally recognised research centres and also distinguished research staff. The Science Faculty is based on the Eastern half of the Academic Core at Macquarie University and is located near to the Macquarie University Research Park and the Macquarie University Hospital, thus allowing practical links with industry and research. The Faculty is renowned for its research in such areas as chiropractic science, proteomic analysis, climate risk research, environmental science and ecological studies. According to The Good Universities Guide of Australian Universities, graduates within the Faculty of Science receive starting salaries higher than those who graduate in science disciplines at other Australian universities.

The New South Wales Systems Biology Initiative, directed by Marc Wilkins is a non-profit facility within the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of New South Wales. Their focus is undertaking basic and applied research in the development and application of bioinformatics for genomics and proteomics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nagendra Kumar Singh</span> Indian agricultural scientist (born 1958)

Nagendra Kumar Singh is an Indian agricultural scientist. He is presently a National Professor Dr. B.P. Pal Chair and JC Bose National Fellow at ICAR-National Institute for Plant Biotechnology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. He was born in a small village Rajapur in the Mau District of Uttar Pradesh, India. He is known for his research in the area of plant genomics, genetics, molecular breeding and biotechnology, particularly for his contribution in the decoding of rice, tomato, wheat, pigeon pea, jute and mango genomes and understanding of wheat seed storage proteins and their effect on wheat quality. He has made significant advances in comparative analysis of rice and wheat genomes and mapping of genes for yield, salt tolerance and basmati quality traits in rice. He is one of the highest cited agricultural scientists from India for the last five years.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Appel</span>

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Nicki Packer FRSC is a distinguished professor of glycoproteomics in the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University and principal research leader at Griffith University's Institute for Glycomics. Packer is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and in 2021 received the Distinguished Achievement in Proteomic Sciences Award from the Human Proteome Organization. Her research focuses on biological functional of glycoconjugates by linking glycomics with proteomics and bioinformatics.

The Institute of Bioinformatics, often referred to as IOB, is an Indian not-for-profit academic research organization based in Bangalore, India. It is involved in research in the fields of bioinformatics, multi-omics, systems biology and neurological disorders. In 2002, the institute was set up by The Genomics Research Trust and the Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore, Maryland. This organization is recognized as a 'Scientific and Industrial Research Organization' (SIRO) of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India. Renowned Proteomicist Akhilesh Pandey, Professor at Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Center for Individualized Medicine of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA is the Founding and current Director of IOB, and eminent Proteomicist Ravi Sirdeshmukh, Founder President of the 'Proteomic Society of India' is the current Associate Director of IOB.

References

  1. Wilkins, Marc R.; Sanchez, Jean-Charles; Gooley, Andrew A.; Appel, Ron D.; Humphery-Smith, Ian; Hochstrasser, Denis F.; Williams, Keith L. (1996). "Progress with Proteome Projects: Why all Proteins Expressed by a Genome Should be Identified and How To Do It". Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews. 13 (1): 19–50. doi: 10.1080/02648725.1996.10647923 . PMID   8948108.
  2. Wilkins, Marc R.; Pasquali, Christian; Appel, Ron D.; Ou, Keli; Golaz, Olivier; Sanchez, Jean-Charles; Yan, Jun X.; Gooley, Andrew. A.; Hughes, Graham; Humphery-Smith, Ian; Williams, Keith L.; Hochstrasser, Denis F. (1 January 1996). "From Proteins to Proteomes: Large Scale Protein Identification by Two-Dimensional Electrophoresis and Arnino Acid Analysis". Nature Biotechnology. 14 (1): 61–65. doi:10.1038/nbt0196-61. PMID   9636313. S2CID   25320181.
  3. Wasinger et al. Progress with gene-product mapping of the Mollicutes: Mycoplasma genitalium
  4. APAF - Australian Proteome Research Facility
  5. Wilkins et al (Eds.) Proteome Research: New Frontiers in Functional Genomics
  6. "Tyrian Diagnostics Pty Ltd"
  7. Regeneus Pty Ltd
  8. Marc Wilkins - UNSW researcher profile
  9. Systems Biology Initiative
  10. Ramaciotti Centre for Genomics
  11. Marc Wilkins - UNSW publication list
  12. Johnson, RN; O'Meally, D; Chen, Z; Etherington, GJ; Ho, SYW; Nash, WJ; Grueber, CE; Cheng, Y; Whittington, CM; Dennison, S; Peel, E; Haerty, W; O'Neill, RJ; Colgan, D; Russell, TL; Alquezar-Planas, DE; Attenbrow, V; Bragg, JG; Brandies, PA; Chong, AY; Deakin, JE; Di Palma, F; Duda, Z; Eldridge, MDB; Ewart, KM; Hogg, CJ; Frankham, GJ; Georges, A; Gillett, AK; Govendir, M; Greenwood, AD; Hayakawa, T; Helgen, KM; Hobbs, M; Holleley, CE; Heider, TN; Jones, EA; King, A; Madden, D; Graves, JAM; Morris, KM; Neaves, LE; Patel, HR; Polkinghorne, A; Renfree, MB; Robin, C; Salinas, R; Tsangaras, K; Waters, PD; Waters, SA; Wright, B; Wilkins, MR; Timms, P; Belov, K (2018). "Adaptation and conservation insights from the koala genome". Nat Genet. 50 (8): 1102–1111. doi:10.1038/s41588-018-0153-5. PMC   6197426 . PMID   29967444.
  13. ASBMB Awards