Overview

The Yeast Resource Center (YRC) is a NCRR and NIGMS Biomedical Technology Research Center based at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. The YRC's mission is to (1) exploit the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to develop novel technologies for investigating and characterizing protein function and protein structure (2) facilitate research and extension of new technologies through collaboration, and (3) actively disseminate data and technology to the research community.

Through collaboration, the YRC freely provides resources and expertise in six core technology areas:

1. Protein Tandem Mass Spectrometry
   Tandem mass spectrometry is a powerful technique for characterizing a proteome. The YRC is using mass spectrometry to study the structure and composition of protein complexes, sites and mechanisms of post-translational modifications, protein regulation, and protein quantification. (Led by John Yates and Michael MacCoss)
2. Protein Sequence-Function Relationships
   Understanding the functional properties of proteins is of paramount importance. The YRC has developed a method that uses protein display technology in conjunction with high-throughput sequencing to enable high-resolution mapping of protein sequence-function relationships and the analysis of protein function on a massive scale. (Led by Stan Fields)
3. Quantitative Phenotyping
   The YRC develops sequencing and competitive growth technologies to study the functional consequences of protein variation in yeast and humans. (Led by Maitreya Dunham)
4. Protein Structure Prediction and Design
   The YRC applies data describing intra and intermolecular interactions with the Rosetta computer program to better predict and design macromolecular structures and interactions. (Led by David Baker)
5. Fluorescence Microscopy
   The YRC develops technologies based on live-cell microscopy and FRET to map the relative position of proteins within large multi-protein complexes in living cells. (Led by Trisha Davis and Eric Muller)
6. Computational Biology
   The YRC develops and applies computational techniques to model and understand protein structure and function. This research emphasizes statistical and machine learning techniques, such as hidden Markov models and support vector machines. (Led by William Noble)

A current list of YRC publications may be found here. The volume and breadth of publications illustrate the impact of the YRC on technology development and collaborative research in a broad range of research areas.