The goal of The Dynactome Project is to map protein-protein interactions within human cells, and to define changes at the systems level that characterize malignant cancers. The work represents the first large-scale attempt to map dynamic protein interactions and is expected to lead to new proteomic and computational technologies, and may also enable new cancer therapies.

The way in which proteins interact and assemble into networks accounts for sophisticated cell behaviour. Understanding changes to this network of protein interactions may hold the key to understanding diseases, such as cancer. Protein interactions in a cellular network are dynamic, therefore complementary approaches are being used to analyze this “dynamic protein interaction network” (dynactome) in normal and malignant cells. The project will use state-of-the-art strategies to map out protein interactions within human cells, and define the aberrations that characterize malignancy at the systems level.

The Dynactome program has been working to elucidate the cell signaling networks in both normal and disease states, with an emphasis on cancer metastasis. The outcomes of this approach have been the identification of proteins that are critical in cancer which will represent diagnostic or therapeutic targets for further study. For example, the team published data in the February 2009 issue of Nature Biotechnology which illustrated that changes in the biochemical wiring of oncogenic cells results in phenotypic transformations that directly affect disease outcome specifically in breast cancer patient cohorts. The research team also developed an algorithm, NetworKIN, which can predict kinases responsible for specific phosphorylations.  This approach yields a 2.5-fold improvement in the accuracy with which phosphorylation networks can be constructed.