Proteomics is a rapidly growing field of molecular biology that is concerned with the systematic, high-throughput approach to protein expression analysis of a cell or an organism. Typical results of proteomics studies are inventories of the protein content of differentially expressed proteins across multiple conditions.

 

The cell responds to internal and external changes by regulating the activity and level of its proteins; therefore changes in the proteome (a collection of all the proteins coded in our genes) provide a snapshot of the cell in action. Proteomics enables the understanding of the structure, function and interactions of the entire protein content in a specific organism.

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Proteomics developments have included advances in mass spectrometry (MS) technology, protein fractionation techniques, bioinformatics. Proteomics relies on three basic technological cornerstones that include a method to fractionate complex protein or peptide mixtures, MS to acquire the data necessary to identify individual proteins, and bioinformatics to analyze and assemble the MS data. Most proteomic discoveries and efforts to date have been mainly directed towards the areas of cancer research drug and drug target discovery and biomarker research.