Abstract
A major objective of the Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO) is to promote and support the area of proteomics as it relates to human health and disease. HUPO activity is based on thematic initiatives, work groups and hosting of international conferences [1]. In 2011, a new HUPO initiative on Model Organism Proteomes (iMOP) was established to support an action in which principles, protocols, and data standards developed for human proteomics, could be readily disseminated to proteome researchers working with a wide range of model organisms [2]. In the past four years, iMOP members have hosted international workshops, iMOP sessions under larger international conferences, and actively liaised with proteomics communities outside the sphere of HUPO [3-5]. These exchanges have aided in the evolution of iMOP from an initiative aiming to bridge the research on model organisms and human proteomics to one that embraces the full diversity of the countless organism proteomes that impact human health. These include most significantly species important for agriculture and food production, and bacteria that are indeed of major significance for human health. It soon became clear that the iMOP initiative covered communities that go far beyond what is commonly thought of as model organisms. As a consequence, in 2014 the initiative underwent a self-re-evaluation, to embrace a broader perspective, and re-named the Initiative on Multi-Organism Proteomes (iMOP) to better reflect and support the needs of scientific communities working with non-human proteomes.
Heazlewood, Joshua L