Measuring consequences of protein misfolding and cellular stress using OMICS techniques

The ambition to measure all or at least a significant fraction of relevant molecules in a cell culture or tissue sample has reached possible realization with the development of the so-called OMICS technologies. We will here briefly review current technologies and give examples of their applications in investigations related to protein misfolding diseases. We will primarily cover the classical OMICS categories GENOMICS, TRANSCRIPTOMICS, METABOLOMICS, and with some more detail PROTEOMICS. These techniques are in most cases performed by dedicated core facilities or commercial services. We will give an assessment of uses as well as limitations of these technologies supported by examples of their application in research related to protein misfolding. We will further briefly discuss genome-wide RNA interference and finally touch on bioinformatics, because the huge amounts of data typically collected with OMICS techniques requires the application of specific software to handle and stratify the data sets. Today, most biologists using OMICS-techniques must, at least in part, be able to analyze their own data using user-friendly web-based tools.