Digital Proteome: a resource for target detectability and expression across tissues in human and preclinical model organisms

Proteins serve as both the primary targets and potential off-targets for therapeutics, including small molecules and biologics. Consequently, a comprehensive understanding of their detectability and expression patterns across diverse human tissues, under both healthy and pathological conditions, is critical throughout all stages of drug development. However, achieving a complete proteomic landscape for each tissue presents a significant analytical challenge due to the vast dynamic range of protein abundances within a given tissue and the immense complexity introduced by various proteoforms. These proteoforms arise from multiple biological processes, including genetic variations, post-transcriptional modifications and posttranslational modifications. Collectively, these mechanisms result in the generation of over a million distinct protein species derived from approximately 20,000 protein-coding genes, thereby complicating efforts to generate a full proteomic profile across tissues.