IUPAB can help young biophysicists of all ages to use the internet and other resources to minimize the cost of research into human heart failure (a paradigm for other common diseases) while making real biomedical progress. In this informal demonstration/discussion we will demonstrate how to:
· More effectively search for the current literature for a suitable candidate protein involved in heart disease.
· Search the Human Protein Atlas (http://www.proteinatlas.org/) to locate candidates for disease-associated proteins in healthy human tissues like the heart.
· Gain access to information from human tissue banks such as the Sydney Heart Bank (see Li A, et al., 2013. Heart research advances using database search engines, Human Protein Atlas and the Sydney Heart Bank. Heart Lung Circulation Doi: 10.1016/j.hlc.2013.06.006), or contact Dr Cris dos Remedios (cris.dosremedios@sydney.edu.au) to determine if human heart tissues are available, and if so under what conditions.
· What are the limitations to initiating the above searches? Is it possible to make real advances on a modest budget and publish the results?
The above example can be equally applied to diseases involving a range of human diseases other than heart disease such as cancers. For further information contact Dr Bill Williams, Director, IUPAB Education Task Force (M.Williams@massey.ac.nz).