Genetic studies of human populations have become a major tool for drug development. In the last few years, these studies have moved toward comprehensive proteomics profiling as well. In late 2023, a paper was published in Nature by the Pharma Proteomics Project, which characterized the plasma proteomic profiles of 54,219 UK Biobank participants. This was a precompetitive biopharmaceutical consortium that sought to provide a mapping of 2,923 proteins that identified 14,287 primary genetic associations, of which 81 percent were previously undescribed.

Chris Whelan was the lead author of this project paper, and he joins the show to discuss what’s next for these kinds of studies and their results. Whelan is a director of neuroscience on the data science and digital health team at Janssen Research & Development. He’s also chair and co-founder of the Pharma Proteomics Project.

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