The term "human proteome" refers to the set of human proteins which are defined by the human genome. While the genome is largely known and this, in principle, defines the proteins which might exist, the 3-dimensional structures of many of the proteins are yet to be determined. Nonetheless, there is a substantial collection of many thousands of proteins with which potential drug molecules might interact. To develop therapies for a disease it is important to understand which proteins play a significant role, and to avoid side-effects it is necessary to avoid interactions with other proteins.

Over the coming years, we hope to screen molecules against as many proteins as possible in order to construct a database of interacting molecules. In the future, this will be used in two ways (a) predicting side-effects and (b) providing examples of possible protein inhibitors immediately. In general, the Proteome project will run when there is a pause in other more focused projects such as Cancer and HIV.