The sixth bi-annual African Centre for Gene Technologies (ACGT) Proteomics workshop, organised by Project Co-ordinator at the ACGT, Mr Thabo Khoza, was hosted by the University of Pretoria on 1-2 February 2016. This interactive and dynamic workshop, attended by three FABI PhD students, included lectures and in silico practicals on diverse topics such as de novo sequencing, protein inference, metaproteomics, Ppst-translational modifications, protein-protein interactions, subcellular proteomics and protein-RNA interactions. Round table discussions also took place during the workshop to allow the participants to present their own scenarios and receive advice on experimental design, data analysis or sample handling directly from experts in the fields. Participants further gained experience in analysing and interpreting proteomics data using softwares such as OMSSA, Peptizer, etc.

Lectures were presented by Professor Lennart Martens and Ms Tracey Hurrell. Prof. Martens is a Professor of Systems Biology in the Department of Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Ghent University, and group leader of the Computational Omics and Systems Biology Group in the Department of Medical Protein Research at VIB. He has published over 170 papers and three books in the field of proteomics and is regularly invited to present Proteomics courses worldwide. Ms Hurrell is a staff member and senior PhD student at the Dept of Pharmacology at the University of Pretoria. She is also a recent UK Commonwealth awardee, which allowed her to spend few months of her PhD working in Cambridge, under the supervision of Prof. Kathryn Lilley, an expert in the field of subcellular proteomics.

Overall, this two-day workshop attracted 34 attendees from different academic backgrounds including Dr Stoyan Stoychev from CSIR, Dr John Becker from ACGT, Prof Duncan Cromarty from the Department of Pharmacology (University of Pretoria) and three FABI PhD students: Ms Lizahn Zwart, Ms Elodie Ekoka and Mr Johan Liversage.

For those interested in proteomics, several beginner-friendly tutorials recommended by Prof. Martens can be found here.