Mark Rogers, global scientific director, life sciences at SGS examines how proteomics studies are helping bolster the next generation of medicines.
Lab Analysis
Proteomics defines the methodologies used to characterise the proteome - the entire protein complement of a cell, tissue, or organism under a specific set of conditions. The foundation for this area of study comprises fractionation of a protein mixture, identification of the individual proteins and bioinformatics to analyse and compile the data.
The first protein studies that may be considered under this definition began in the mid 1970’s with the introduction of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. While protein identification was not possible, this advance in separation technology led to the first attempts to catalog all human proteins. Further advances in this field however, were only possible after the development of sensitive and reliable methods for identification. The first techniques were based upon N-terminal, Edman sequencing and have been refined to allow microsequencing from trace amounts of electroblotted proteins. This technique has now largely been replaced as a result of developments in mass spectrometry. Since the early protein characterisation work by “FAB-mapping” in the mid 1980’s(1), the application of MS to protein analysis, including identification, has become ubiquitous. Significant improvements in sensitivity, accuracy, speed and automation of mass spectrometric techniques have been made this, the primary method of choice for protein identification.