Deciphering the proteome of beer

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Odd that they would do a proteome on beer, considering that it doesn't have its own expression machinery... but then again, it does make sense. What type of beer did they use? Which yeast? I'm sure you could have as many "beer proteomes" as you have types of beer...
 
Indeed, I would say wrong word to describe a protein assay of a beer. But the paper is not bad, Alot of work for sure, and using LC-MS/MS for beer is pretty crazy.

I guess you could do a general profile of each beer and test to ensure future batches look the same on the 2D gel...
 
It'd be really cool if they could come up with a few key "good batch" and "bad batch" markers.
Beyond that, knowing what comes from yeast vs. barley vs. hops, and later, which yeast, which hops and which barley, can help predict and design for excellence. Or at least I hope so. :)
 
Imagine if they could genetically manipulate the yeast to make all the wheat proteins in the right proportions, so you could make great beer from just sugar water. Brewing on an interstellar voyage to Alpha Centauri would be a lot more feasible at that point. ;)

{sorry to sci-fi-geek-out for a sec, there} :eek:
 
Thats not really that impossible, Yeah yeast take a bit more to coax into making custom proteins, but yeast have ridiculous genetic power. Making plant proteins may be a bit far though.

But the beer protein profile is a good idea
 
damn cell wall! That is very true, tagging the proteins with the proper export sequence is not an easy task
 
I was at a talk where the presenter said,

"If any of you can solve this {secretion} problem, I can promise you seven-figure compensation from my pharmaceutical collaborators."

Yeah, they want it *that* bad... lol.

By the time we can voyage between stars, though, we'll probably have it figured out.
 
The difficulty is in getting the yeast to secrete compounds. :(
Justibone, you mean secondary metabolites/small compounds, rather than proteins/peptides?

It's pretty easy to get yeast to export proteins and peptides. Getting it done in an active, FDA approved form is another thing!
Yeast invertase is secreted, as are the mating peptides, alpha and a (no symbol font that I could see for the alpha). One engineers the signal peptide from one of those onto the 5' end of the gene of interest (or n-terminus, if you prefer protein terminology over DNA). There are two big bugaboos for proteins that I remember. One is the fairly high probability of hyperglycosylation (O-linked, if I recall correctly). I recall an example of a 14 kD protein being hyperglycosylated to greater than 100 kD. Another is having them active or at least folded properly; some proteins just don't take to export kindly.
Some use Kluyveromyces lactis and Pichia pastoris to get around some of this, but I'm not sure I'd want beer made with those.

By the time we can voyage between stars, though, we'll probably have it figured out.
ORACO, commander. How's that for sci-fi geeking out? :) A few good Saturday afternoons were wasted on that show.
 
You're right, of course, that certain things are secreted, but there are, as you said, "bugaboos". If it all worked the way we wanted or thought that it should, biochemistry-worker-bees like me would be bored all the time.

I'm not bored. ;)

I hadn't heard about that particular glycosylation issue -- I'm more of a cytoskeleton guy.
 
Indeed, the whole mechanism of vesicular transport is just mind blowing. That would be million dollar idea, to harness that power.

I love the talk of biochem on forums...

Not to get off topic, but What sort of research do you do?
 
:off:

Cytoskeletal. Renal proximal tubule epithelium. Transport is a huge part of what the proximal tubule does, of course, but we're more of a structure lab, and not so much a vesicle lab.

My boss is S. J. Atkinson, Indiana University School of Medicine, if you want to look up some of our papers. I haven't published yet... still working on that. ;)
 
Nice, I just published for the first time this month! A yeast protein crystal structure.

Playing around with yeast is what I really want to start doing with my brew.
 
I was at a talk where the presenter said,

"If any of you can solve this {secretion} problem, I can promise you seven-figure compensation from my pharmaceutical collaborators."

Nobody is going to get seven figures from any pharmaceutical company
for any brilliant ideas. What they *will* do, however, is give you a lab
to solve the problem, pay you 1/3 what the suits make to tell you to solve it,
when you solve it, then the boss will take your idea and give it to some of
his buddies in the company, they will publish a paper on it and get the
promotion, and the company will make billions. You? Ah, you will get a nice
pen with the company logo on it.

Ray
 
Yeah, if it's Pharma writing your checks, sure.

But, if you are an academic, then it will be the University that patents the idea. They will give you a cut of whatever they get for licensing it, on a sliding scale. (At my University, you get about 50-75% of the first 150K, then a much lower percentage after that, topping out around $200K per year... though they are very secretive about compensation and I could be wrong about that.) They will get paid millions for really good intellectual property, and over the course of the life of the patent (21 years, not all of which are making money) you will probably get somewhere north of a million dollars from a profitable patent. You will also get promotions and envy from the other academics, so that's nice... but you won't be shtupping supermodels by your pool in Beverly Hills. ;)

The reason the University pays academics for IP is because if they don't, the patent can be voided more easily in court. Unless all people who contributed to the work are adequately (not fairly, just adequately) compensated, the judge can rule that the patent is not valid and toss it into the public domain. Whoops!

As a corporate employee, your work is the property of your employer, but principal investigators are not considered employees of the University since they are funded by the NIH or other sources. (If they were employees of the University, the University would have to pick up the tab for the research.) So, it is different for academia, but not *much* different. Heck, at Purdue the investigators are *expected* to generate income for the University via IP... and if you don't, good luck getting tenure. It's getting tough even in the Ivory Tower Kingdom nowadays. :(

If you work for Pharma, yes, you will get a shiny pen and a big corporate thank you. Then, you'd better produce something else awesome, or 18 mo's later you will be carrying your box out the front door, escorted by security.

This industry sucks monkeys, you know? Still, academia is slightly better, if less well-compensated, IMO.
 
I hadn't heard about that particular glycosylation issue -- I'm more of a cytoskeleton guy.
Yeah, it's a pain. Supposedly, P. pastoris has a glycosylation pattern more like mammalian cells.

Nobody is going to get seven figures from any pharmaceutical company
for any brilliant ideas. What they *will* do, however, is give you a lab
to solve the problem, pay you 1/3 what the suits make to tell you to solve it,
when you solve it, then the boss will take your idea and give it to some of
his buddies in the company, they will publish a paper on it and get the
promotion, and the company will make billions. You? Ah, you will get a nice
pen with the company logo on it.

Ray
It's the same in plant biotech, FWIW... :)

There is a way to get the seven figures for a brilliant idea; get a start-up going w/said brilliant idea, have it mostly succeed, have a big pharma buy it and cash out with stock options. Easy, right?:D
 
There is a way to get the seven figures for a brilliant idea; get a start-up going w/said brilliant idea, have it mostly succeed, have a big pharma buy it and cash out with stock options. Easy, right?:D

Oh, yeah. Piece o' cake. ;)
 
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