The systematic genome sequencing programmes have uncovered the diversity of all proteins potentially synthesized by living organisms. But they have faced us also with the existence of a total lack of knowledge on the structure and function for a considerable part of these proteins. One of the major challenges in Biology over the coming decade will consist in the functional annotation and the determination of all interactions and structures of the ensemble of proteins constituting the proteome. With the aim of accelerating the access to protein samples for experimental approaches, technological structural and functional genomics programmes have been launched all over the world. By making use of advanced automatization and miniaturization, these novel methodologies are changing our methods for obtaining protein samples. It is now of urgent need that the community active in the field of structural and functional proteomics becomes aware of these technological advances in the field of high throughput protein production, purification and analysis.

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