WALTHAM, Mass., Decision Resources, Inc., one of the world's leading research and advisory firms focusing on pharmaceutical and health care issues, finds that, although many proponents of structural proteomics believe that it will accelerate drug discovery and reduce its cost, advances in automation and information technology are required before full development and exploitation of structural proteomics can be achieved. Also, according to a new DR Report entitled "Mining the Proteome: Efforts in Expression, Functional, and Structural Proteomics," structural proteomics companies are changing their business models to focus more on drug discovery. "Start-up ventures initially based on structural determination technology are now expanding their business focus to become integrated drug discovery companies," said Barbara Bolten, analyst at Decision Resources. "This shift includes the formation of discovery-based collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies as well as the acquisition and integration of drug discovery assets and capabilities. However, the need for increased automation, intensive computing power, new applications, and IT services will be important hurdles to overcome before structural proteomics can contribute to an acceleration of drug discovery." Proteomics is a collection of scientific approaches and technologies aimed at characterizing the protein content of cells, tissues, and whole organisms. An important goal of proteomics studies is to understand the biological roles of specific proteins and use this information to identify new drug targets. Proteomics research also has applications in target validation, drug screening, and the discovery of diagnostic markers.