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

It's the end of the week, and that means another HPA image of the week! This week's image was brought to us by citizen scientists in Project Discovery, and specifically by Aleksandra Shaishi who found this image playing Project Discovery.

The protein labeled in Fig 1. is an image of the antibody HPA006539, which labels solute carrier family 2 (facilitated glucose transporter) (SLC2A) member 3 and member 14. This is what we call a "multi-targeting" antibody as it binds more than one protein...Read more

In the Human Protein Atlas, there are 32 human organs and tissues analyzed. 2489 of the genes have significantly higher expression in one tissue compared to all other tissue types. Analysis show that testis is the organ with the largest number of tissue-enriched genes, with 1057 genes classified as testis enriched. The specific events and alterations of cell structure during spermatogenesis, and the fact that sperm has the ability to survive outside the male body may explain why testis has the largest number of enriched genes.

The organ with the second highest number of enriched genes is the brain with 381 enriched genes...Read more

It's time for another HPA image of the week! This week's image was brought to us by citizen scientists in Project Discovery, and specifically by Altytwo Altryness who found this image playing Project Discovery and correctly identified the antibody as labeling intermediate filaments and displaying cell to cell variability.

The protein labeled in Fig 1. is an image of keratin 6B, type II (KRT6B) in U-2 OS cells, human epithelial osteosarcoma, which is the reference cell line for the HPA.

Keratin is a well known intermediate filament protein that form filaments roughly 10nm in diameter...Read more