The SMP-Cell was a joint project of nine academic institutes and companies, and performed functional analysis of genes and proteins at the molecular and cellular levels. Based on the pioneering concepts and resources of the German cDNA Consortium, the SMP-Cell generated and systematically exploited ORF-resources of human genes. Technological know-how and clinical expertise was connected to form a research pipeline which created synergies by developing and applying high-throughput technologies in biomedical research. These attached in-depth functional data to thus far uncharacterized genes and anonymous ESTs, establishing validated disease relevant targets. We provided the ORF-clone resources to the scientific community, and disseminated the results from molecular and cellular functional gene analysis via our web-accessible database LIFEdb. 

The Systematic Methological Platform SMP-Cell was supported between 2004 and 2008 by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung - BMBF), as one of the core activities of the National Genome Research Network (NGFN). 

As of June 2008, our work is expanded within the NGFN-Plus project IG-Cellular Systems Genomics