The Human Proteome Organization (HUPO) in 2003 launched an effort to combine results from the many labs around the world who were working on the human plasma proteome. This effort, the Human Plasma Proteome Project (HPPP), continues today and the PeptideAtlas is an integral part of that effort.

Phase I of the effort, completed in 2005, involved the collection of plasma proteomics results from 18 laboratories and resulted in a list of 3020 identified proteins identified with two or more peptides regardless of laboratory or specimen. (Omenn et al., Proteomics, 2005). Later that year, States et al. applied rigorous statistical approach to the same data, yielding a reduced set of 889 proteins with at least 95% confidence in protein identification. Also in that same year, the first Human Plasma PeptideAtlas was constructed from 28 datasets, 20 of them from PPP I. The last PeptideAtlas build contained over 3000 distinct proteins.

The latest publication summarizing the state of the Human Plasma Proteome Project can be found at Advances and Utility of the Human Plasma Proteome, Deutsch EW, Omenn GS, Sun Z, Maes M, Pernemalm M, Palaniappan KK, Letunica N, Vandenbrouck Y, Brun V, Tao SC, Yu X, Geyer PE, Ignjatovic V, Moritz RL, Schwenk JM, J Proteome Res. 2021 Dec 3;20(12):5241-5263