As a follow up from last week´s blog post, on Jan Mulder and his work, we now present the most recent publication from his lab, on the anatomical distribution of neuronal calcium-binding proteins 1 and 2 (NECAB1/2) in rodent and human spinal cord.

Mingdong Zhang is the first author of the study and a PhD student registered in the Division of Molecular Neurobiology, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics (MBB) at Karolinska Institutet.

– But much of my actual work is carried out in the Department of Neuroscience...Read more

This week, the Human Protein Atlas is highlighting a new atlas recently released in HPA 14, The Mouse Brain Atlas. This image from The Mouse Brain Atlas was brought to us by Nadya Petseva, a team member on the project. I know what you're thinking, what's a mouse doing in the "human" protein atlas?!

Though we typically deal with human cells and tissues in the HPA, it is not currently possible to image full human brain at the cellular level, whereas using a mouse brain we can gain key insights into how proteins in the brain function in situ. This makes mice an attractive "model organism" as their brains actually consist of very similar regions to those found in humans...Read more

Today we introduce a new feature on the Human Protein Atlas blog, interviews with scientists involved in the project. First out is Jan Mulder, head of the brain initiative.

– I am a biologist, specialized in neurobiology with a PhD in molecular neurobiology from Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands.

In 2004, at the same time that the Human Protein Atlas project was producing its first antibodies, Jan Mulder came as a post-doc to the group of Tomas Hökfeld at Karolinska Institute. In collaboration with Mathias Uhlén and the Human Protein Atlas he began to explore the possibilities to use antibodies raised against human targets on rodent brain tissue...Read more

Focus in version 14 has been to improve validation of the antibodies used to map the human proteome and the inclusion of a new atlas; the Mouse Brain Atlas created by the Fluorescence Tissue Profiling facility at Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab) in Stockholm.

Many of the mouse proteins have extensive homology with the human counterpart and this forms the basis for using the mouse brain as a model for the corresponding human brain to explore the expression and distribution of proteins in the various regions and cells of the brain...Read more