High Throughput Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomics: Principle and Application

Proteomics as it is most commonly referred to is the study of the total complement of proteins in a closed system, the protein complement of the genome. Proteomics is a new kind of systems biology. Instead of studying one or more components of a system at a time, proteomics strives to study the whole system at once. Proteomics strives to do for proteins, what microarrays do for nucleic acids. Proteomics has only become possible in the last 10 years or so because of several advances, both in technology and in information. On the technology side are powerful mass spectrometers capable of generating sequence information from thousands of peptides in a single day. On the information side is the rapid genome sequencing projects currently finished or in the process of finishing. Powerful computers can then compare the data generated by the mass spectrometers with DNA or protein sequences in public or private databases to rapidly identify thousands of proteins in a single day.