With the decoding of the human genome completed, Richland scientists are working to decode the proteome -- the proteins that make our bodies function properly and make us who we are.

The proteome will be the topic of the next Community Science and Technology Seminar sponsored by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Columbia Basin College.

PNNL scientist Mary Lipton will present an introduction of the proteome, its potential effect on our lives and an update on research at the Richland lab at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Her talk will be in the theater on the Pasco CBC campus.

The genome code is the blueprint of all the possible proteins expressed in a living organism. The proteome is the subset of those proteins that actually are made and change within a cell when it responds to its environment or disease.

"Proteins determine how the work gets done," Lipton said. "They carry out the genetic instructions that make us who we are."

By better understanding under what conditions cells rely on different proteins, scientists expect to know more about why illness occurs and how medicines can be used to treat it.

The knowledge also may help restore the environment.

Richland scientists have obtained the most complete protein identification of any organism to date with the study of a radiation-resistant microbe. Although radiation damages its DNA as it does in other organisms, this microbe is better able to repair its DNA.